Suicide rates among U.S. kids ages 8 to 12 have been rising by 8.2% since 2008, according to researchers with the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Suicide has now become the fifth leading cause of death among both female and male preteens, said the team led by Donna Ruch, Ph.D., from the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
The researchers published their findings on July 30 in JAMA Network Open. The study was funded by NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health and National Institute on Drug Abuse, and by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Ruch and her team analyzed preteen suicide records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from Jan. 1, 2001, to Dec. 31, 2022.
“Following a downward trend until 2007,” they wrote in their report, “suicide rates significantly increased 8.2% annually from 2008 to 2022.”
Hellbound and Down 