Provided by David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D.
Surgeon General of the United States of America
Chapter 3: Children and Mental Health
Overview of Mental Disorders in Children
Depression and Suicide in Children and Adolescents
Prevalence
Suicide
In 1996, the age-specific mortality rate from suicide was 1.6 per 100,000 for
10- to 14-year-olds, 9.5 per 100,000 for 15- to 19-year-olds (i.e., about six
times higher than in the younger age group; in this age group, boys are about
four times as likely to commit suicide than are girls, while girls are twice as
likely to attempt suicide), compared with 13.6 per 100,000 for 20- to
24-year-olds (CDC, 1999). Hispanic high school students are more likely than
other students to attempt suicide (CDC, 1998). There have been some notable
changes in these rates over the past few decades: since the early 1960s, the
reported suicide rate among 15- to 19-year-old males increased threefold but
remained stable among females in that age group and among 10- to 14-year-olds
(National Center for Health Statistics, 1998); the rate among white adolescent
males reached a peak in the late 1980s (18.0 per 100,000 in 1986) and has since
declined somewhat (16.0 per 100,000 in 1997), whereas among African American
male adolescents, the rate increased substantially in the same period (from 7.1
per 100,000 in 1986 to 11.4 per 100,000 in 1997 (CDC, 1998). From 1979 to 1992,
the Native American male adolescent and young adult suicide rate in Indian
Health Service Areas was the highest in the Nation, with a suicide rate of 62.0
per 100,000 (Wallace et al., 1996).
It has been proposed that the rise in suicidal behavior among teenage boys
results from increased availability of firearms (Boyd, 1983; Boyd & Moscicki,
1986; Brent et al., 1987; Brent et al., 1991) and increased substance abuse in
the youth population (Shaffer et al., 1996c; Birckmayer & Hemenway, 1999).
However, although the rate of suicide by firearms increased more than suicide by
other methods (Boyd, 1983; Boyd & Moscicki, 1986; Brent et al., 1987), suicide
rates also increased markedly in many other countries in Europe, in Australia,
and in New Zealand, where suicide by firearms is rare.
Back to the Mental Health: The Surgeon General's Report Table of Contents