Suicide rates among preteens aged 8 to 12 years in the United States rose by an average of 8.2% annually from 2008 to 2022 and were marked by a disproportionate increase among girls, according to a new study.
Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) examined U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) records on preteen suicide from 2001 to 2022. The study appeared in JAMA Network Open, a medical journal.
The number of suicides among U.S. preteens more than tripled to 1,759, or 5.7 per million children, during the 14 years of 2008 to 2022 from 482, or 3.34 per million children, between 2001 and 2007.
“It’s surprising to see the growing trend in young people,” Lisa Horowitz, co-author of the study and director of Patient Safety and Quality for the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, told Reuters.
Horowitz said like older children, younger ones also are exposed to social media, which has an impact on their mental health.
“The speed at which things happen has just ramped up, so there’s no respite from stressors,” Horowitz said.
A total of 2,241 children died by suicide during 2001-2022, the researchers found. About 68% of the deaths occurred among boys.
The data is “a call to action” for pediatric practitioners to start universal screening for suicide risk in children as young as 10 years, Horowitz said.
“The best way to keep a young person from killing themselves is to ask them directly … and then to really brace for that non- ‘no’ answer and get them some help,” she said.
Suicide prevention interventions should be developmentally appropriate and culturally informed, she said.
The study also found a disproportionate increase in suicides among American Indian or Alaska Native, and Asian or Pacific Islander preteens, and Hispanic preteens.
Suicide was the 5th leading cause of death in girls between 2008 and 2022, moving up from being the 11th leading cause between 2001 and 2007.
Suicide rates among preteen girls rose to 4.15 per million children during 2008-2022 from 1.25 per million children during 2001-2007.
Black children had the highest rates of suicide for both periods as had been shown in previous research, while there was a significant percentage increase in such deaths among Hispanic children.
Death by hanging and suffocation was the most common method, but the use of firearms was the most rapidly increasing suicide method.
A total of 440 children in the U.S. died by suicide using firearms during 2008-2022, nearly five times higher than the number from 2001-2007, according to the study data.
The researchers said the study was limited by the possibility of misclassification of suicides as other causes of death.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; editing by Caroline Humer and Anil D’Silva)
