Answers sought for rise in suicide attempts among Black teens
December 10, 2021
Legislators and academics are pushing for better research to understand why self-reported suicide attempts have dramatically risen among Black adolescents over the past three decades (Source: “Why Are More Black Kids Suicidal? A Search for Answers.,” New York Times, Nov. 18).
A study published this summer in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that self-reported suicide attempts rose nearly 80% among Black adolescents from 1991 to 2019, while the prevalence of attempts did not change significantly among those of other races and ethnicities.
One study of high school students, published in September, found that the Black teenagers surveyed were more likely than the white teenagers to have attempted suicide without first having suicidal thoughts or plans. Because suicide screening questionnaires typically ask whether people are having suicidal thoughts or have made plans to hurt themselves, the authors speculated that the questionnaires might fail to identify some Black youths who are at risk of suicide, or that there could be additional factors that might indicate a need for intervention.
More research is needed, but a government study conducted last year suggested that Black children and adolescents who died by suicide were more likely than white youths to have experienced a crisis in the two weeks before they died. They were also more likely to have had a family relationship problem, argument or conflict, or a history of suicide attempts.