69ý

Student Well-Being What the Research Says

CDC: Child, Teen Suicide Rates Fell in 2022

By Sarah D. Sparks — November 29, 2023 2 min read
conceptual illustration of an umbrella opening clear skies in a storm
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

While overall suicide rates continue to rise, fewer adolescents and young adults are taking their lives, according to federal data released this week.

The findings are a bright spot amid an ongoing national mental health crisis, but experts say it’s too early to tell whether young people are starting to turn the corner on widescale depression and anxiety.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s show the overall suicide rate ticked up in the past year from 14.1 to 14.3 among every 100,000 Americans.

That includes nearly 500 suicides among children ages 10-14 and more than 6,000 among young adults ages 15-24—the first decline in suicides for young people since a pre-pandemic spike in 2019.

Suicides among those ages 10-24 have risen fairly steadily for more than a decade, with a particularly sharp spike after the pandemic. But 2022 saw an 18 percent drop in the suicide rate for young adolescents (2.3 per 100,000) and a 9 percent drop in the suicide rate for older teens and young adults (13.9 per 100,000) compared with 2021. (Suicide rates for younger children were too low to provide preliminary data.)

Anna Yaros, a research clinical psychologist who studies child mental health issues for RTI International, said she was “intrigued and encouraged by these new numbers, but cautious.”

Since the pandemic, spiking rates of depression and anxiety among children and teenagers have been named a . Yaros thinks ramped up school mental health programs—such as the hiring of more counselors and social workers and the implementation of social-emotional interventions in schools’ multi-tiered systems of support—may be bearing some fruit in lower suicide rates.

But she noted the suicide data have not yet been finalized and warned that there aren’t yet signs of decline in measures of broader depression and anxiety issues.

“Teachers and school counselors are encountering both more students with immediate mental health-care needs and students with worse trauma exposure and fewer coping skills than in previous years,” Yaros said. “Moreover, they continue to encounter large shortages in community mental health providers for students in mental health crisis and students needing mental health treatment.”

For example, one published earlier this year found that more than 9 in 10 children and teenagers receiving treatment for depression reported having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, and nearly half had attempted suicide.

Support needed for special populations

The suicide data also show some conflicting trends for particular student groups.

For example, older adolescent and adult men continued to die from suicide three or more times as often as girls and women.

Yet since 2019, high school girls have reported significantly higher rates of seriously thinking about, planning, and attempting suicide, according to a from a long-term federal survey of adolescents.

American Indian and Alaskan Native people had the highest suicide rates of any racial group, at 39.2 per 100,000 for men and 14.4 per 100,000 for women in 2022, basically flat from the prior year. Suicide rates stayed mostly unchanged by race overall, though the rate for white women ticked up from 7.1 to 7.3 per 100,000 between 2021 and 2022.

Mortality rates are based on all death records processed by the National Center for Health Statistics as of Aug. 6, 2023.

See Also

Image of a bridge made of puzzle pieces with the middle piece moving to connect the two sides.
Nuthawut Somsuk/iStock/Getty

Related Tags:

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
AI and Educational Leadership: Driving Innovation and Equity
Discover how to leverage AI to transform teaching, leadership, and administration. Network with experts and learn practical strategies.
Content provided by 
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
Investing in Success: Leading a Culture of Safety and Support
Content provided by 
Assessment K-12 Essentials Forum Making Competency-Based Learning a Reality
Join this free virtual event to hear from educators and experts working to implement competency-based education.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Student Well-Being Opinion 3 Things You Need to Know About Absenteeism
We studied the data from more than 1.5 million students. Here’s are some overlooked insights to boost attendance.
Todd Rogers, Emily Bailard & Mikia Manley
4 min read
Scattered school desks seen from above, some with red x's on them signifying absences.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week and iStock/Getty Images
Student Well-Being SEL Has Become Politicized. 69ý Are Embracing It Anyway
Eighty-three percent of principals report that their schools use an SEL curriculum or program.
5 min read
Image of positive movement when attending to a student's well-being is a component.
Dmitrii_Guzhanin/iStock/Getty and Laura Baker/Education Week
Student Well-Being 69ý Don't Want to Talk About Politics, Either
The election is occurring at a time when many schools are discouraged from having tough conversations in class.
6 min read
Viewers gather to watch a debate between Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Angry Elephant Bar and Grill, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in San Antonio.
Viewers gather to watch a debate between Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Angry Elephant Bar and Grill, Sept. 10, 2024, in San Antonio. Researchers say students are more reluctant to talk politics this election cycle.
Eric Gay/AP
Student Well-Being Opinion Can Athletic Coaches Help 69ý Learn More in the Classroom?
School sports can provide an opportunity for mentorship.
8 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty