Most children do not seriously think of hurting themselves, and an

individual child's risk of suicide, in the grand scheme, is relatively low.

But certain factors like age, gender, family dynamics, peer
relationships, and mental illness may increase the risk of suicidality
and are critical for parents, teachers, and other adult authority figures
to keep in mind, especially if a child starts to display warning signs of
suicidal ideation (below).

Why would a child or teen have suicidal thoughts?

There isn’t always an easy answer for why a particular child might
think about suicide. Risk factors for suicidal ideation include being
bullied; experiencing sexual or physical abuse, neglect, or other
trauma; feeling lonely or socially isolated; or struggling with a mental
health condition like depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder, or anxiety.
Outside of diagnosable mental health disorders, children and
adolescents who struggle with suicidal thoughts may be facing
significant feelings of stress, sadness, anger, or self-doubt and feel
as if they have no one to turn to.

Children who have recently lost a loved one may also be at

heightened risk, as well as those whose parents have recently gotten
divorced or whose families are facing serious financial trouble. Family
conflict has been shown to be a greater risk factor for young children;
once kids reach the teen years, conflicts with peers begin to have a
more significant effect on their mental health. Tweens and teens who
identify as a gender or sexual minority or who are questioning their
identity or orientation may be at heightened risk for suicidal ideation;
this risk may be exacerbated if they are being bullied at school or feel
unsupported by the people around them.

Some children take their lives impulsively, in response to a sudden

stressor; this tends to be more common in young children, who may
not know how to cope with difficult feelings and whose brains are not
yet developed enough to properly manage impulses. While this is
rare, limiting access to lethal means—always locking up guns, for
instance, or keeping strong medications out of reach—can
significantly reduce the risk of a child suddenly harming themselves.
Are boys or girls more likely to think about or attempt suicide?
Evidence consistently shows that while girls are more likely to
attempt suicide, boys are more likely to die from it. This so-called
“suicide gender paradox” is often attributed to boys’ greater
propensity to choose more lethal means, such as firearms, while girls
tend to choose less violent means, such as medication overdoses,
from which the chances of survival are much greater.
Some recent evidence, however, suggests that the gender gap may
be narrowing—at least among teens—and that adolescent girls are
dying by suicide at higher rates than in the past. This appears to be
driven by a shift toward more lethal means in attempts among girls,
though the exact reasons for this shift are unknown. Experts
emphasize that regardless of a teen’s gender, suicidal thoughts or
threats of suicide should be taken seriously and responded to rapidly.