The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth provides important information on suicide attempts among Canadian youth. After tracking a representative sample of young people for more than a decade, researchers found most young people (96.0%) had never attempted suicide. But among the 4.0% who did make an attempt, researchers found clear patterns. For half of these young people, attempts occurred only during adolescence, while for the other half, they continued into adulthood. Where attempts were limited to the teen years, risk peaked at ages 14 to 15 and then declined. In contrast, where attempts continued into adulthood, risk increased steadily throughout adolescence.

BC data on youth suicide attempts also exist. Among the 38,000 students in Grades 7 to 12 participating in the McCreary Centre Society’s most recent BC Adolescent Health Survey, 5% acknowledged attempting suicide in the past year  — a figure in keeping with the Canadian data noted above. Overall, suicide attempts warrant serious attention because they are an important risk factor for subsequent attempts, including fatal ones.

For more information, see Vol. 16, No. 4 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.