Analyzing how various things can protect teens from suicide, the researchers found, for example, that white teens thought to be at highest risk but with strong family and school connections had a risk of just 3.5 percent of attempting suicide. But those with the fewest protective factors in their lives saw that risk jump to 20.4 percent, the study says. The more risk factors a youth is exposed to, the harder and harder it is to overcome.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for teen-agers.
They found many of the same risk factors for teen suicide documented by other studies, Borowsky says, but they also specified risk levels for race and gender groups. For instance, suicidal behavior of a friend puts a black girl at 16 times the risk of a suicide attempt as a black girl who doesn't have such a friend, the study says. By contrast, Hispanic girls are three times as likely to attempt suicide if their friends are at risk. And black boys are 33 times as likely to make an attempt if a family member displays suicidal behavior as are black boys whose family members are not suicidal. Details appear in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics .