Photo by Melissa Askew
It should come as no surprise that suicide rates among Americans have increased steadily since the Great Recession of 2007, with even greater spikes recorded since COVID-19. While the economy has begun a slow overall recovery in recent years, and extreme joblessness has eased somewhat, many college-age youth remain severely burdened by a mountain of debt in a job market that remains forbidding. Unable to pay their bills, a growing number are returning to live with their parents.
It’s a convenient safety net — but it’s also psychologically debilitating. And it’s a painful reminder that they are the first generation in decades that expects to be worse off than previous ones. Meanwhile, their younger siblings, watching from the sidelines, see even less to cheer about. For some, the pressure — often combined with the effects of substance abuse, family trauma and cyber-bullying by peers — simply becomes too much.
Devoid of emotional support and adult reassurance, they become desperate to end their pain.
The risk of suicide is increasing for all youth, but for the first time in decades it is girls not boys that are committing suicide more often. And those at greatest risk are getting younger and younger – 10-14 in most cases. In fact, even preteen youth as young as 8 are experiencing a rise in suicide. The suicide rate among Black youth ages 10-17 increased by 144% between 2007 and 2020, the fastest-growing rate among all racial groups. And among Black adolescent girls, the rate is even higher. Experts have hypotheses but remain baffled overall by these numbers.
Past studies have shown that young girls contemplate suicide and attempt it more often than boys. But until recently they were far more likely to survive. One reason was their chosen means – for boys, it was often firearms, for girls, it was slower acting poison or pills. In recent years, that gender gap has vanished.
Consider the data. Starting in 2007, suicide rates for girls ages 10 to 14 began increasing annually by about 13%, compared to about 7% for boys, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. For teens ages 15 to 19, rates among girls and boys increased by about 8% and 3.5%, respectively, the JAMA study found.
While the overall youth suicide rate is at its highest since 2000, the teenage girl suicide rate is at its highest in four decades. Female suicides are increasingly relying on hanging and suffocation, which is reducing their chances of survival. These girls aren’t just crying out for help – they actually want to die. Why?
It’s hard to tease out the different factors at play.
Depression and anxiety rates among young girls are rising. So are their rates for substance abuse, which now surpass the rates for young boys, another first. However, most of those that suffer from these conditions don’t attempt to commit suicide, though they may contemplate it at higher rates than others, studies show.
Another key triggering factor could be cyber-bullying. Girls spend far more time on social media sites than boys and are also far more likely to be victims of cyberbullying. A study published in 2018 found that young victims of cyber-bullying were twice as likely to attempt suicide. They were also more than 10 times more likely to think about it.
In recent years, a number of high-profile suicides by young female victims of cyber-bullying have drawn attention to the problem. Some school districts are reporting suicide “clusters” after witnessing a spate of teen suicides linked to cyber-bullying.
For example, in Perry Township, Ohio in 2018, six teens, mostly middle schoolers, committed suicide in the space of six months. Three of those suicides occurred over a span of just eleven days in January. None of the victims were related. Cyber-bullying was considered a triggering factor in nearly all of these cases. Anothersuicide cluster was reported in a single Missouri college town that same year.
Black women and girls especially at risk
Ethnic and racial health disparities, which play a role in nearly all social problems, are clearly present with youth suicide.
Between 2013 and 2019, suicides actually fell among white teenagers, but increased nearly 60 percent among young Black women and girls age 15 to 24 years.
But it’s not just Black youth. The Black female suicide rate for all ages, up to and including Balck women in their 70s and even 80s, is also rising steadily. And yet, compare the suicide crates for Black male teens and Black female teens, and even pre-teens – the Black female rate is double the male rate.
In fact, the suicide toll among Black adolescent girls is the worst of any single demographic, or sub-demographic in the nation today. Time magazine has called it a “mental health crisis hiding in plain sight.” But you’d hardly know it from the silence among national opinion-makers. Even Kamala Harris, who once touted the vulnerability of transgendered teens to bullying and suicide back in 2018, never once mentioned a similar plight facing young Black girls. In fact, neither did any other prominent Black politician, including Democratic party leaders that normally champion the rights and aspirations of Black women.
Even Black church and community leaders have proven loath to address it. Partly, it’s the stigma of suicideamong the Black faithful – suicide is a mortal “sin,” after all. Black health providers and sociologists say there’s also an ingrained belief – borne out by history and daily practice – that Black women are the cultural backbone of the Black community, holding their families together during times of stress and social upheaval. Suicide runs counter to this time-worn image; it’s simply taboo, they argue.
Paradoxically, this “heroic” view of Black women can also make it harder – not easier – for them to ask for help. The same resistance – even defiance – can also limit Black women’s openness to psychological counseling, health professionals say, because it symbolizes weakness. But the fact is, African-Americans also face other race-based barriers – lower incomes and health insurance rates and an absence of trained and sympathetic Black clinicians – that further frustrate their access to culturally competent care.
If Black mothers already feel these pressures, it’s no wonder their children and grandchildren aren’t getting the help they need, either.
Addressing the crisis
The rising youth suicide rate, especially among young girls, has caught suicide prevention experts by surprise. The suicide rate had declined after 1993 until the most recent spike. But shifting the focus to teens is also a paradigm shift. Most youth suicide prevention resources are still aimed at college-age students who, in fact, are far less likely to commit suicide than their non-college attending age peers, studies show. Their younger siblings still in middle school who may never even make it to college are at even greater risk but the health policy world to say nothing of the political world is struggling to catch up.
From a policy perspective, more states and cities need funding to conduct outreach and to screen for teenagers at risk of a possible suicide attempt – and to treat them in its aftermath.
A report by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 68% of all young people that committed suicide in 2022 had failed to receive a mental health screening in the year prior to their death. Yet, more than three-quarters of them had experienced some form of interaction with the healthcare system – a check-up, an ER visit, or treatment for another condition. Their less visible emotional problems fueling their desire to end their lives might have been detected – if only they’d been probed more deeply, health experts say.
Even when a problem was detected – usually after a suicide attempt or other self-harming incident landed them in the ER – an established transition to ongoing outpatient care was lacking. That may have left them more vulnerable to a second suicide attempt – which is fairly common among those that try and fail in their first attempt, research shows.
A few states and cities – but far too few – have recently begun pilot youth suicide prevention projects with funding from federal health agencies. For example, two new projects began in California in 2023 sponsored by the state Department of Public Health. As with projects elsewhere, these tend to focus on counties with the highest documented rates of self-harm incidents based on documented ER visits. The emphasis is on outreach to youth centers and the establishment of youth-oriented websites that include peer-based video testimonies from young suicide survivors.
In addition, a coalition of NGOs, led by the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, has just promulgated The National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, aimed, in part, at creating a more comprehensive care system for youth suicide survivors in the wake of their ER visits.
These are fledgling efforts, still poorly funded, often for just a year or two – but they’re a start. These tend to be high-profile marketing and ad campaigns, responding to public outcry, with uncertain durability. More follow up is needed to ensure that sustainable diagnostic and treatment resources will be in place once pressure from voters or constituents subside.
Congress is also getting into the act. In 2020, a bipartisan bill made its way through the House and Senate to designate “9-8-8” as the universal suicide hotline number. The new hotline – which expedites responses to crisis calls – finally made its roll-out in 2022.
Two years into its launch, awareness of the new hotline is growing – and the call volume is rising. By May 2024, contacts on the new hotline (calls, texts, and chats) exceeded half a million – up nearly one-third since 2023, with an overall 80% increase since 2022. A number of other hotlines geared to specific demographic subgroups are also popping up – Black Line, for example, for African-Americans, and a new LGBTQ hotline.
Government funding isn’t the only avenue for bolstering prevention. Some experts are also calling on parents to take action – by limiting their children’s access to potential tools of self-destruction – firearms, or course – but also poison, pills, alcohol, and even knives and rope as well as car keys, and to place more effective constraints on rampant social media use. These measures may be especially effective for children suffering from depression or another mental illness that have already engaged in other, more limited forms of self-harm, experts say.
All of these are important new steps. They may stanch the bleeding but reversing the current rates of suicide among teens – and among other vulnerable groups, including war veterans, older men, and Black women across the board, among others – will take more than applying bandages on an open wound.
Our broader national policies must also address the underlying conditions that fuel the malaise and desperation experienced by so many of today’s teens that might lead them to choose suicide as an option. What do America’s fearful youth need most?
A sustainable economy with greater mobility for all. More communities and families with stronger core values. A society-wide commitment to interracial harmony – and to interpersonal civility. An end to school bullying and hate speech. And a broader cultural ethos that teaches youth of all backgrounds to aspire, not despair.
Source: Counter Punch
