Rise in Teenage Suicides

Hanna Vance

Salt Lake Community College

Psychology 2010

Kimberly Meyers

April 15th, 2021

 1

No one ever wants to talk about suicide. It's such a devastating subject and yet it happens

so often. As time goes on, suicide has become more relevant in studying. There are so many

people that pass away because of suicide. One of the most tragic age groups that this occurs

among is in adolescents. I have recognized in my own life that this has become a terrible

problem amongst young adults. I have grown up with many of my close friends who have passed

away because they didn't think their life was worth living. I felt this hole inside of me and I

wanted to find out why. Why is this occurring among kids who are my age? And what can I do

as a friend to help prevent this from happening to others?

For this scientific research paper, I want to explain and inform others of the importance in

knowing and preventing this from occurring across the United States. I am going to collect

research and data on the influential factors that play into the increase of teenage suicides in

America. My hypothesis is that there are many factors that play into this suicide pandemic and

that these factors include, mental illness, abusive homes, docial media, drug use, and bullying.

As I continue to search for information to back up my thesis, I will find out if these factors do

play into the rising rates of teenage suicide or not.

The first thing I am going to do in this study is research factors that contribute to teenage

suicide. I also will take the numbers of total suicides over the years and see if there's any increase

at all. The last piece of information I want to include is the numbers of death amongst young

girls and boys and I also want to compare is the different ways of how adolescents are

committing suicide.

Once I have collected this information, I will then analyze and further explain my

findings. I will also attach certain programs and ways to prevent young adults from committing
 2

suicide, because there are so many different organizations out there to help, and most of the time

young adults are not aware that these hotlines exist.

As I began my research, I decided that I was first going to look at the contributing factors

that play into the increase of teenage suicides, because suicide rates have consistently increased

since 1999. Now, suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents form the ages

10-24 in the United States. (Oppenheimer 2018) There is a long list of ways and factors that

young adults who commit suicide are likely to have experienced before they decide to take their

own lives. These include peer pressure, mental disorders, substance abuse, family structure, and

stress. (Bilsen J. 2018)

Peers are huge factors that impact a young adult. As the adolescent grows, they tend to

care more about what their peers think of them and want approval from them as well. When it

comes down to finding supporting research that peer groups influence suicide risk in young

adults there are really no facts. Although there is evidence that social contextual factors can

impact one's well-being (Heaney & Israel 1997). As such, it is not surprising that this is often

used to conceptualize a factoring risk for suicidal behavior in teens.

Something that is popular as well among teens is participating in taking drugs. Substance

abuse can be so dangerous and impactful on the mind as it is still growing. Surprisingly enough,

depression and alcohol abuse are one of the most common and most dangerous risk factor

combinations in completed suicide. There was a survey completed by young adults that had

previously tried to commit suicide and had failed, and they were asked if they had a depressive

disorder and an alcohol disorder, and majority of them answered saying that they indeed had

both. What we can learn from this is that overall, drug abuse can harm a teenagers brain and
 3

development and also goes hand in hand with mental disorders, and can really be deadly. (DCD

2016)

Mental disorders are a factor as well such the most commonly known, depression and

anxiety. Statistics show that about 90% of people who commit suicide have suffered from at least

one mental disorder and that these mental disorders are found to contribute at least 40-50 percent

of the risk of suicide. Some of these mental disorders that influence young adults can be

depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anorexia, bulimia, and personality disorders.

(Bilsen J. 2018)

If there is mental disorders and substance abuse within the child’s household, the child is

more likely to commit suicide. It is estimated that 50 percent of suicides amongst teens are

influenced by family factors. (Bilsen J. 2018) Although there is plenty of research that has been

taken on this correlation between family factors and risk of suicide, it can be hard to be

constituent with every family unit. Generally, the child will have a nuerocongnitive vulnerability

to suicide if the parents also have a history of suicidal behavior and mental disorders. Other

factors such as parental relationships between the child and parent, or a poor family environment

are unknown as far as if they play an impact between the child and their suicidal behaviors.

(Oppenheimer 2018)

There are many adolescents who are suffering from multiples of these factors. Typically,

young adults who suffer from mental disorders, at least half of them are also diagnosed with

personality disorders. This can lead to the adolescent feeling stressed and unable to cope with

their psychological patterns and thoughts. Most young adults are also not being treated for their

disorders. (K. 2005) A combination of all of these suicide risk factors can be so harmful to young

adults and it is truly something we need to be aware of as a friend, sibling, parent, etc.
 4

I want to now explain the data statistics recorded for the number of deaths by suicide

amongst adolescents. For persons aged 10–19, suicide rates began increasing in 2010 which

increased 76% overall from in 2007 being (6.7) to the year 2017 which was (11.8) deaths per

100,000 persons. (Curtin 2019) Now taking into account this information, we also should

compare the different percentages of suicide forms from boys to girls. It was found that 67

percent of boys and 52 percent of girls killed themselves using a firearm. The next form was

hanging or suffocation which was only around 23 percent equally for both boys and girls. The

lowest percent of adolescents will use a drug overdose, drowning, slitting their wrists, or

falling/jumping off of things to commit suicide.

Overall, the data I have collected had come to support my claim somewhat in the sense

that the factors that influence the increase in teenage suicide are menta disorders, family factors,

drug abuse, stress, and peer groups. Now I am sure that there are many other contributing factors

to this pandemic. There is just a hard way to collect research because you can survey the people

who have passed away, and to test one's behavior can be so different from another's behavior.

But with more study and research, theories have come to fins that these are the influential factors

and that they do impact the young adult in committing suicide. These statistics can be so hard to

accept, and to realize, but they are true. It can be devastating to know that this is a form of death

that is rising amongst teenagers.

I was expecting to find more research on social media and the effect it had on adolescents

but there just isn't enough data to support that claim. You also can't do a very ethical research

study to experiment these factors intentionally, because doing so would be wrong. Eventually

with time and more research scientists will hopefully be able to have many different theories on

this topic and how it plays into the young adults and suicide risks, because they will only be able
 5

to collect data and not experiment. Going more into this research paper I discovered more

questions I may have concerning suicide, such as why do cluster suicides happen, or what factors

have the most impact on young adults as they grow up.

As scientists continue to conduct their research on the increasing number of teenage

suicides, they should continue studying the family factors and peer group factors to see if they

influence it more than what our hypotheses and theories tell us now. For both of these factors,

the supporting data was not very clear or factual and most of it had to do with psychological

factors that the child grew up with and developed. Because of this it can be very difficult to tell

whether it is something that is genetic, environmental, or both.

At my high school Herriman High, my senior year in 2018 we had a cluster of suicides.

Approximately 7 deaths occurred that year were because of suicide and two being my close

friends growing up. My school tried to not reveal or talk about the issue, possibly worrying about

studying copying these acts. There is controversy on this subject as well that has me questioning,

“Is it better to talk openly about suicide, or keep it hush-hush to try and prevent it more?” By

doing this would it have helped stop this cluster suicide? It could've been insensitive as well to

not talk about the issue. I know there are many other schools that have had cluster suicides which

contribute to the rise in teenage suicide. (Reed 2018)

I hope that after reading this article, it may spark thought of someone who needs help and

that if you find someone, to reach out to them. Don't be afraid to speak up or say hello and help

someone who is in need. The National Suicide Hotline phone number is 1-800-273-8255, and

they even have a website with more information and help. There are also many other places you

can turn to for help if you are feeling suicidal, and like one of the statistics showed that those

who don’t reach out for help end up more likely to commit suicide.
 6

References

Bilsen, J. (2018, October 30). Suicide and Youth: Risk factors. Retrieved March 19, 2021, from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6218408/

Curtin, S. C., M.A., & Heron, M., Ph.D. (2019, October). Death Rates Due to Suicide and

Homicide Among Persons Aged 10–24: United States, 2000–2017. Retrieved March 19,

2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db352-h.pdf

(DCD), D. C. D. (2016, May 13). Does alcohol and other drug abuse increase the risk for

suicide? HHS.gov. https://www.hhs.gov/answers/mental-health-and-substance-

abuse/does-alcohol-increase-risk-of-suicide/index.html.

Heaney, C. A., Israel, B. A., Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (2008). Health behavior

and health education: theory, research, and practice. Journal of Social Networks and

Social Support 3, 189, 210.

K; P. G. A. K. H. (2005). Suicide among adolescents. A psychological autopsy study of

psychiatric, psychosocial and personality-related risk factors. Social psychiatry and

psychiatric epidemiology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16217594/.

Oppenheimer, C. W., Stone, L. B., & Hankin, B. L. (2018, September). The influence of family

factors on time to suicidal ideation onsets during the adolescent developmental period.

Journal of psychiatric research.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6414226/.

Reed E. Lillian. (2018, April 4). 'We're racking our brains': A series of teen suicides has left the

Herriman High School community searching for answers. The Salt Lake Tribune.
 7

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/04/04/were-racking-our-brains-a-series-of-teen-

suicides-has-left-the-herriman-high-school-community-searching-for-answers/.