Teenage Suicide

6 Pages 1620 Words

Suicide has been said to be a permanent solution to a temporary problem. It has been estimated for every successful suicide, there is between two hundred to three hundred people who will attempt it (Vannetta 1996). According to statistics provided by National Center for Health Statistics (2000), an average of 30,000 suicide deaths occur in the United States each year. It is estimated that 5,000 of those suicides are committed by teenagers. Suicide happens every 90minutes and is the 2nd leading cause of death among college student and third leading cause of death among youth between ages 15-24. It outnumbers homicides by 5 to 3 and has twice as many deaths as HIV/AIDS. At a ratio of 4:1, more boys than girls are successful at completing suicide; although twice as many girls will attempt suicide. The self may be an important link to why some of the population commits suicide. Self-concept is important in a person’s ability to handle the little changes that threaten the norms of our individuality. “The relative strength of contingent and non-contingent components of the self-concept vary by age and sex, thereby, creating varying vulnerabilities to identify threat,” stated Girard (1993 p.555). When committing suicide, boys seek more aggressive means, and as stated earlier, are more successful than girls. Perhaps the avenue of expression each sex takes to attain their respective self-concept is a key to why so many teens attempt or commit suicide within our society.
Suicide is a problem that is felt all over the span of the life cycle. Suicide has become the third leading cause of death in the age group of 15 to 24 year olds. In horrifying contrast, the suicide rate of adolescents has tripled since the 1950’s. At present, statistics provided by the National Institute of Mental Health, display male to female ratios as 4:1
Suicide 3

for age group 10 to 14 with a mortality rate of 1.5 per 100,000, 5:1...