The rise in youth suicide is part of a broader increase in mental-health problems. This preceded the pandemic but was probably accelerated by it
s, when the term “teenager” had been popularised, it brought to mind trouble. Spotty youths who engaged in risky behaviour outside the house—getting drunk, pregnant or into car crashes—were “the number one fear of American citizens”, wrote Bill Bryson in his memoir, “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid”. Today, the risks American teens face come from within. Boys are now more likely to kill themselves than to be killed in a motor crash.
Experts have a reasonable understanding of how to help prevent suicide and better protect against such thoughts. Not all young people are equally at risk. Although girls in America are much more likely to contemplate ending their lives, or injure themselves in attempting to do so, teen boys are nearly three times as likely to die from suicide. Young people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual are three times as likely to feel suicidal.
America is also exceptional for its availability of guns. Use of a firearm is the most common method of suicide for boys, which helps explain why they are more likely to die from an attempt than girls. Easy access to a lethal method is one of the biggest risk factors for someone in despair. In Switzerland, after 2003 suicide rates among men of military-service age dropped sharply after the country halved the size of its army, which often requires soldiers to take weapons home.
Being locked up during the pandemic increased feelings of isolation and loneliness for many youngsters. There is increasingly compelling evidence of the harm inflicted by school closures on children’s development and mental health. Covid appears to have hurt the mental health of younger people disproportionately, says Richard McKeon at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This was “superimposed on a longer-term upward trend in youth suicide,” he adds.
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