prompting researchers to suggest that suicidal ideations and attempts typically occurs before the mid-20s. Available evidence suggests that suicide rates vary substantially between regions depending on the prevailing social drivers, triggers, and risk factors related to suicide. Globally, about 80% of all suicide cases reportedly happen in low- and middle-income countries. Suicide rates vary from about 15 per 100,000 in Southeast Asia to 5.6 per 100,000 in the eastern Mediterranean region. In Europe, the average suicide mortality rate is pegged at 14.1 per 100,000, which is higher than the global average of about 11 per 100,000. Also in Europe, the Suicidal Ideation Onset and Course in Young Adults Suicidal ideation is reportedly rare in individuals younger than age 10. However the prevalence of suicidal ideation increases steadily as children move into the youth and adolescent stages. Between the ages of 12 and 17, many adolescents experience suicidal ideation that is triggered by different social, financial, and health factors. There seems to be a link between the rate of suicidal ideation and the possibility of a future suicide attempt in the youth population. For instance, youths and adolescents with a positive history of suicidal ideation are approximately 12 times more likely to attempt suicide before the age of 30 when compared to non-suicidal youth (Clapham & Brausch, 2022). In many cases, serious or chronic suicidal ideation eventually becomes associated with suicide attempts. This further explains why more than one-third of all youth with a positive history of suicidal ideation later report suicide attempts Puzzled by the multivariate factors seemingly responsible for the development of suicidal ideation and attempts in the general population, epidemiologists have conducted multiple studies to better understand if suicidality is linked with sex. Preliminary evidence first suggested that adolescent girls are predisposed to suicidal ideation and attempts. These studies were mostly lacking in reliability because the survey samples were too small, biased, or too skewed. In the early 2000s, surveys exploring the same topic with a better approach to sample selection and elimination of possible bias finally established that adolescent girls are more likely to have experienced suicidal ideation and attempts at a much earlier stage of life than adolescent boys are. In addition, the frequency of cases also recorded in adolescent girls appears to be more compared to adolescent boys (Li et al., 2022). However, new evidence suggests a slight difference in the age of onset in both populations. Young females seem to have an early age of onset for suicidal ideation compared to young males. However, the age of onset of suicidal attempts among young males appears to be earlier compared to young females. In addition, these differences may be influenced by social factors and various levels of clinical severity (Poudel et al., 2022). One of the many explanations for this is predicated on neuroendocrine factors during the stages of puberty in both population groups. The evidence on the progression of suicidal intent as both population groups transition from adolescence to adulthood remains unclear at best. By extrapolation, the trend of suicidal ideation and attempts in young females and males seems to mirror trends in the older population. For instance, surveys have established
prevalence rate of suicide seems to vary substantially between countries. Azerbaijan recorded a suicide prevalence rate of 3.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, a sharp contrast to the 32.7 per 100,000 inhabitant rate reported in Lithuania. Records on suicide statistics suggest that Central and Eastern European countries have the highest suicide mortality rate, while Mediterranean countries and Western and Northern European countries have the lowest. These statistics explain why healthcare policies on suicide prevention, management, and care disproportionately target youth and young adults. or commit suicide. A suicide data analysis (Cha et al., 2018) published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, suggests that the majority of youth and adolescents who transition from suicidal ideation to active suicide attempts do so within the first two years of ideation onset. In essence, active suicide attempts seem to have a later age of onset compared to suicidal ideation. Also, most suicide attempts reported after late adolescence are reattempts due to new triggers or a failed suicide management regimen. Suicide reattempts and deaths have become increasingly common in 15- to 19-year-olds. The availability and access to lethal means seem to affect suicidality, too. The suicide rate among young adults in countries with significant insecurity and arms proliferation issues has been observed to be higher in many instances. In countries where access to lethal means is restricted, the suicide rate is lower. that both adolescent females and males have a suicide death rate that is two times that of young women and men (Cha et al., 2018). Race and Ethnicity In a 2017 CDC report on suicidality distribution concerning race and ethnicity, researchers observed a distinct pattern in the distribution of suicidality among youth in Canada, as well as Native American, Alaska Native, and Indigenous youth in the U.S. This cross-national study affirmed earlier reports of a higher risk of suicide intent and attempts by Indigenous youth. See Figure 4. However, the factor responsible for this distribution seems to be more social and environmental and less biological as with sex. The factors identified by these studies include a higher incidence of substance abuse, poverty rates, the unemployment crisis, access to lethal means, loss of cultural identity, and the incidence of intergenerational trauma (Cha et al., 2017). Other studies focus on different racial/ethnic groups in different parts of the world. For instance, young Black non- Hispanic adults in the U.S. have a lower rate of suicidal ideation compared to adults of other races. However, this is not the case with suicide attempts. Black non-Hispanic adults have a higher incidence of suicide attempts and deaths compared to other groups. This observation is particularly interesting because it lends credence to an assessment tool in C-CSSRS where suicidal ideation is viewed differently from suicide attempts. This shows that suicide deaths can be recorded in populations with exceptionally low rates of suicidal ideation.
Demogzraphic Patterns in Suicidality among the Global Youth Population Sex
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Book Code: PYMA2024
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