Rising teen suicides demands urgent, proactive response

Global challenge

Direct comparisons across regions are problematic due to different data collection methods, but statistics generally indicate teenage suicide trending upward across the world.

In Taiwan, suicide mortality climbed sharply from 0.4 to 1.6 per 100,000 for 10- to 14-year-olds and from 4.1 to 5.4 for 15- to 19-year-olds between 2017 and 2022. The Chinese mainland records rose from 0.96 to 1.7 and 1.4 to 3.34 within similar age brackets over this period. Singapore reported more than tripling of cases among 10- to 19-year-olds, advancing from 12 in 2017 to 34 by 2022.

Data from England and Wales showed the 15-19 age group's suicide rate up from 5.4 to 6.3 between 2017 and 2021. In the United States, suicide was the second and third leading cause of death for those aged 10-14 and 15-24 respectively in 2020.

Yip says that the causes of suicide may differ across regions, but the available data indicates that adolescent suicide has emerged as a pressing global challenge. Young people nowadays are exposed to a multitude of distressing factors, including fractured families, unemployment, poverty, pandemics, climate change, intense competition, negative social media, etc.

Yip emphasizes that as teenagers progress from a state of depression and unhappiness to contemplating suicide and formulating a suicide plan, they undergo crucial psychological shifts in helplessness and hopelessness. Unfortunately, the prevailing societal framework fails to offer young people enough hope and help.