A new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has found that for the first time ever, suicide rates for U.S. middle school students have surpassed death rates by car accidents.
Fortune Magazine is reporting on the new study which found that suicide rates among children ages 10 to 14 doubled from 2007 to 2014. The steady, seven-year rise, jumped from a rate of 0.9 to 2.1 per 100,000 during that period.
In 2014, 425 young people took their own lives compared to 384 who died in automobile accidents that year.
According to the Jason Foundation, an organization dedicated to the prevention of the “Silent Epidemic” of youth suicide through educational programs, there has been an alarming 128 percent increase in suicides since 1980.
As of today, more teens and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, combined.
“Each day in our nation, there are an average of over 5,240 [suicide] attempts by young people grades 7-12,” the Foundation reports.
“Any rise (in youth suicides) should be of concern, there’s no doubt,” said Mark Kaplan, a professor of social welfare at the University of California, Los Angeles about the new CDC numbers. “In time we might uncover some reasons, but a cautionary note [is] not to rush to any conclusions from this.”
As Fortune reports, the underlying causes of suicide are highly complex which makes it difficult to explain the trends documented by the CDC.
Answers to the cause of this disturbing trend may remain elusive, but the warning signs are not.
Four out of five teens exhibit warning signs such as talking about suicide, making statements about feeling hopeless, helpless or worthless, and being preoccupied with death.
There are also certain risk factors that can elevate the possibility of suicidal ideation such as depressed youth, those with low self-esteem, abused or neglected youth or those with a history of parental violence, substance abuse and divorce.
Visit the Jason Foundation for more information.
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