According to the Surgeon General, a youth commits suicide every two hours in our country. In 1997, more adolescents died from suicide than AIDS, cancer, heart disease, birth defects and lung disease. Suicide claims more adolescents than any disease or natural cause.
Adolescents now commit suicide at a higher rate than the national average of all ages.
The rate of adolescent suicide in adolescent males has tripled between 1960 and 1980. Suicide rates for adolescent females have increased between two to three fold. There have been striking increases in suicidal behaviors among African American males, Native American males and children under 14. Much of the increase can be accounted for by deaths due to guns. Suicidal behavior is the end result of a complex interaction of psychiatric, social and familial factors.