Youth suicide

Youth suicide is when a young person, generally categorized as someone below age 21, deliberately ends their own life. Rates of attempted and completed youth suicide in Western societies and other countries are high. Youth suicide attempts are more common among girls, but adolescent males are the ones who usually carry out suicide. Suicide rates in youths have nearly tripled between the 1960s and 1980s. For example, in Australia suicide is second only to motor vehicle accidents as its leading cause of death for people aged 15–25, and according to the National Institute for Mental Health, suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens in the United States. Based on a survey done on American high school students, 16% reported considering suicide and 8% reported attempting suicide sometime within the 12 months before taking the survey. Between 1980 and 1994, the suicide rates of young black males doubled. American Indians and Alaska Natives commit suicide at a higher rate than any other ethnic group in the United States. In India, one-third of suicides are young people 15–29. In 2002, 154,000 suicides were recorded in India.

According to research carried in by the Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian in 2007, 39% of all youth suicides are completed by young people who have lost someone of influence or significance to them to suicide. The Commission terms this suicide contagion and makes several recommendations as to the importance of safeguarding young people and communities from suicide contagion.

In 2011 the Australian Federal Parliament Standing Committee for Health and Ageing Inquiry into Youth Suicide met in a round table forum with young representatives from three organisations at the forefront of preventing youth suicide, including Sunnykids, Inspire, and Boys Town. The Standing Committee has since released a discussion paper highlighting the findings of their inquiry and will seek to make final recommendations on the most effective means for reducing youth suicide at the conclusion of their inquiry.

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