Suicide Among Youth and Among the Elderly

Suicide Among Youth and Elderly

Type of Diagnosis

Epidemiological Diagnosis

Behavioral Diagnosis

Educational Diagnosis

Contrary to overall trends, the suicide rate for youths 15 to 19 years old has increased over the last few decades. Suicide was still the third leading cause of death for young people 10 to 19 years old in 1998. (MoScicki, 1994)

Suicide is extremely rare in young children, and lower among 10-to-14-year-olds than older teens.

In 1998, white males accounted for 61% of all suicides among youth 10-19. White males and white females together accounted for over 84% of all youth suicides. However, the suicide rate among Native American male youth is exceedingly high in comparison with the overall rate for males 10 to 19 (19.3 per 100,000 vs. 8.5 per 100,000). African-American males ages 10 to 19 - more than doubling from 2.9 per 100,000 to 6.1 per 100,000 from 1981 to 1998. In 1999, found that Hispanic students, both male and female, were significantly more likely than white students to have reported a suicide attempt (12.8% vs. 6.7%). (Joe & Marcus, 2003) It has been widely reported in the media that gay and lesbian youth are at higher risk to complete suicide than other youth. A significant percent of all attempted or completed youth suicides are related to issues of sexual identity. However, there are no national statistics for suicide completion rates among gay, lesbian or bisexual. (NIMH, 2003)

If a youth has attempted suicide in the past, he or she is much more likely than other youths to attempt suicide again in the future. If a male teen has attempted suicide in the past, he is more than thirty times more likely to complete suicide, while a female with a past attempt has about three times the risk. (Shaffer et al., 1996) high proportion of suicides and attempters have had a close family member attempted or completed suicide. Stressful life events often precede a suicide and/or suicide attempt. Such stressful life events include getting into trouble at school or with a law enforcement agency; fighting or breaking up with a boyfriend or a girlfriend; and fighting with friends. They are rarely a sufficient cause of suicide, but they often act as precipitating factors in young people. (de Wilde, Kienhorst, Diekstra, & Wolters, 1992)

Since firearms are the most common method of suicide by youth. The most common location for the occurrence of firearm suicides by youth is in their homes, and there is a positive association between the accessibility and availability of firearms in the home and the risk for youth suicide. (Kellerman, Rivara, & Rushford, 1992) Whether that of a peer or in the media - Suicide can be facilitated in vulnerable teens by exposure to real or fictional accounts of suicide, including media coverage of suicide, such as intensive reporting of the suicide of a celebrity, or the fictional representation of a suicide More than 11,000 juveniles engage in more than 17,000 incidents of suicidal behavior in juvenile facilities each year. Other identified risk factors include a family history of mental or substance abuse disorders, a history of physical and/or sexual abuse, low levels of communication with parents, the possession of certain cultural and religious beliefs about suicide (for instance, the belief that suicide is a noble resolution of a personal dilemma), and lack of access or an unwillingness to seek mental health treatment.