National Trends in Suicide Among Asian American or Pacific Islander Youth

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2821492?resultClick=3&utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_EgNIJYgqB4f1k1yCZc8KA9Dm6COvPwmE6d9nSWINRyiBZ271O5Np35uVqoI8RqqEREEpjEBcE47QQwyMvtUvfYM11AQ&_hsmi=317386118&utm_content=317386118&utm_source=hs_email The striking increase in suicides among Asian-Americans Recent U.S. data showed that while suicide rates decreased for young white people in 2018 and 2019, rates went up for Asian-American or Pacific Islander youths. In a recent JAMA Network Open study, researchers examined suicide trends in Asian-Americans ages 10 to 19 years old more closely. Looking at codes for causes of death in a data set ranging from 1999 to 2021, researchers found that suicide rates started rising for girls in 2004, peaking at nearly 3 per 100,000 people in 2020. For boys, the rates began rising in 2009 and peaked at 8 per 100,000 people in 2019. The authors couldn’t explain what was causing the increases, but suggested this upward trend might have stemmed from economic hardships in Asian-American households during the Great Recession, as well as increased exposure to sexism and racism — especially for Asian-American women and girls — with the proliferation of social media.