Do Youth Suicide Prevention Programs Work?

"This increase has been especially pronounced among children and adolescents. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among youth aged 10 to 14 years and the third leading cause of death among adolescents aged 15 to 19 years (Flores et al., 2024). Studies indicate that although male adolescents (and adults) have significantly higher rates of suicide, females have shown the greatest rate of increase in the last decade."

"In adolescents, suicide is often preceded by episodes of intentional self-harm. A single episode of self-harm by an adolescent increases that young person's risk for death from any cause 4-fold, and death from suicide 10-fold (Wright-Hughes et al., 2025). At least one study has found that even an unintentional injury, especially one related to intoxication or aggression, significantly increases subsequent risk for self-harm and suicide (Frajerman et al., 2024)."

Suicide rates have risen dramatically over the last decade, with especially pronounced increases among children and adolescents. Suicide ranks as the second leading cause of death for ages 10–14 and the third for ages 15–19. Male adolescents have higher baseline suicide rates, while females have experienced the largest recent increases. Contributing factors include social media, cyberbullying, sexploitation, and AI chatbots. Episodes of self-harm markedly increase subsequent risk of suicide, and many adolescents who die by suicide have previously presented to professionals. Ethical and methodological constraints limit evaluation of prevention programs. School mass shootings represent a tragic new form of youth suicide, and clinicians find risk assessment difficult and anxiety-provoking.

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