Suicide rate for kids ages 10 to 14 nearly tripled in last decade: CDC -

The suicide rate among children aged 10 through 14 has nearly tripled from 2007 to 2017, while the suicide rate among older teenagers has increased by 76% between 2007 and 2017, new federal data show.

Meanwhile, homicide ranked as the third most common cause of death for teens aged 15-19 and adults aged 20-24, and the fifth most common cause for children aged 10-14.

“After a stable period from 2000 to 2007, suicide rates for persons aged 10-24 increased from 2007 to 2017, while homicide rates increased from 2014 to 2017,” the report explains.

“The pace of increase for suicide was greater from 2013 to 2017 (7 percent annually, on average) than from 2007 to 2013 (3 percent annually).”

Although it declined from 2000 to 2007, the suicide rate for children ages 10 through 14 has nearly tripled from 2007 (0.9 deaths per 100,000 persons) to 2017 (2.5 deaths per 100,000 persons).

Though stable from 2000 to 2007, the suicide rate for U.S. adolescents aged 15 to 19 increased from 6.7 per 100,000 persons in 2007 to 11.8 per 100,000 persons in 2017. The pace of increase was greater from 2014 to 2017 with an increase of 10 percent per year on average.

“Not only is suicide trending upward, but the pace of increase is actually accelerating,” said the report’s co-author, Sally Curtin, in an interview with NPR.

“It is important to recognize that suicide is not caused by one single factor but instead a range of factors that include mental health conditions, but also include important situational factors that many of us will experience in a lifetime — including social, physical, emotional or financial issues,” Carr was quoted as saying.

Factors such as a reduction in quality of life, the poor job market for college graduates, political polarization, an overload of information due to internet usage, and the effects of social media. Other factors such as prolonged immobility and lack of exercise coincident with the increasing use of the internet.

Glenn Thomas, a clinical director of community-based services for behavioral health at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio, told CBS News that the rates of depression have increased consistently with the suicide rate.

Suicide was the 10th most common cause of death among all Americans in 2017.





The suicide rate for kids ages 10 to 14 nearly tripled in the last decade: CDC - The Christian Post: