Child Suicide: Methods

Child Suicide: Methods

Note: this is part of the Youth Suicide Rise project.

Nearly all children who killed themselves in 1999-2017 used either firearms or suffocation, with girls also using 'poisoning' (mostly intentional drug overdoses):

The CDC 'poisoning' category is split between 'drug' and 'non-drug' components, and 9 out of 10 such poisonings by children are classified as 'drug poisoning'.

No other method -- falls, cuts, fires, drowning, or transportation (presumably walking into traffic) -- amounts to more than 2% of all boy or girl suicides.

Firearms were used by the majority (53%) of non-Hispanic White Teen Boys.

Notes:

Suicide deaths due to cutting, the method used by the lead girl in the TV show 13 Reasons Why, are extremely rare among children, with only 41 cases classified as 'cur or pierce' in the CDC data from 1999 to 2017.

Black teen boys are a lot less likely than White teen boys to intentionally kill themselves with a firearm (rate 1.8 vs. 4.01) but they are far more likely to be killed by a firearm (rate 24.21 vs. 7.31).

The comparatively low numbers of fatal intentional (drug) poisoning means that a higher deadliness of OTC/Prescription/Illegal drugs is an unlikely explanation of the huge rise in child suicides, at least for boys (but we will certainly examine the numbers carefully, especially for girls).

On the other a higher proportion of firearm suicides in 2017 over 2007 could account for a large portion of excess child suicides, perhaps due to easier access to firearms by children.

We will look at any time trends in suicide methods soon.