---
title: "Psych News Alert: Children's Suicide Rates Reflect Racial Differences"
description: Between 1993 and 2012, 657 children in the United States died by suicide, the 11 th  leading cause of death among children aged 5 to 11 y...
image: https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/SwingInWinter_94412866-Jun-24-2025-06-29-43-9649-PM.jpg
---

 5/27/15 12:00 AM

# Children's Suicide Rates Reflect Racial Differences

![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [ Psychiatric News Alert ](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert)

Share: [facebook-f icon ](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://alert.psychnews.org/2015/05/childrens-suicide-rates-reflect-racial.html) [linkedin-in icon ](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://alert.psychnews.org/2015/05/childrens-suicide-rates-reflect-racial.html) [Twitter icon ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://alert.psychnews.org/2015/05/childrens-suicide-rates-reflect-racial.html) [pinterest-p icon ](http://pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https://alert.psychnews.org/2015/05/childrens-suicide-rates-reflect-racial.html) [envelope icon ](mailto:?body=https://alert.psychnews.org/2015/05/childrens-suicide-rates-reflect-racial.html)

| ![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/SwingInWinter_94412866-Jun-24-2025-06-29-42-1289-PM.jpg?width=200&height=200&name=SwingInWinter_94412866-Jun-24-2025-06-29-42-1289-PM.jpg) |  |
| --- | --- |

Between 1993 and 2012, 657 children in the United States died by suicide, the 11th leading cause of death among children aged 5 to 11 years. While the overall suicide rate did not change significantly over that time (from 1.18 to 1.09 per million), there were notable differences between white and black children.

“Among white children, the suicide rate decreased significantly during the study period (incident rate ratio = 0.86), whereas for black children there was a significant increase in the suicide rate (incident rate ratio = 1.27),” wrote epidemiologist Jeffrey Bridge, Ph.D., a principal investigator at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and colleagues in *[JAMA Pediatrics](http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2293169).*

Those differences were largely driven by a significant decrease in suicide rates among white boys (from 1.96 per million to 1.31 per million) and a significant increase among black boys (from 1.78 to 3.47 per million). Hanging/suffocation accounted for 78 percent of all suicides.

The authors speculated on several possible explanations of this disparity in outcomes—black youth may be exposed to more violence or traumatic stress, for instance—but could not say for certain what caused the observed difference in suicide rates.

“[F]uture steps should include ongoing surveillance to monitor these emerging trends and research to identify risk, protective, and precipitating factors associated with suicide in elementary school–aged children to frame targets for early detection and culturally informed interventions,” they concluded.

For more in *Psychiatric News* about children and suicide, see: "[CBT for Child Anxiety May Confer Long-Term Protection From Suicidality](http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2015.1b9)."

--aml   (Image: pio3/Shutterstock.com)

[suicide](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/suicide), [psychiatry](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/psychiatry), [JAMA Pediatrics](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/jama-pediatrics), [African Americans](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/african-americans), [children](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/children), [white](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/white), [black](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/black)

## Related posts

[![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/emergency-room-iStock-92282424-Jun-24-2025-05-08-04-1557-PM.jpg?height=200&name=emergency-room-iStock-92282424-Jun-24-2025-05-08-04-1557-PM.jpg) ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2021/09/emergency-department-staff-more-likely.html)

[JAMA Pediatrics](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/jama-pediatrics), [racism](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/racism), [health disparities](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/health-disparities), [emergency department](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/emergency-department), [physical restraints](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/physical-restraints), [White children](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/white-children), [Black children](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/black-children)

## [Emergency Department Staff More Likely to Restrain Black Children Than White Children, Report Finds](https://alert.psychnews.org/2021/09/emergency-department-staff-more-likely.html)

![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert) 

 9/16/21 12:00 AM

[ Read more ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2021/09/emergency-department-staff-more-likely.html)

[![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/emergency_iStock_538726573-Jun-24-2025-05-24-36-3822-PM.jpg?height=200&name=emergency_iStock_538726573-Jun-24-2025-05-24-36-3822-PM.jpg) ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2022/09/black-children-less-likely-to-report.html)

[hospital](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/hospital), [youth](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/youth), [suicide attempt](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/suicide-attempt), [police](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/police), [white](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/white), [suicidal thoughts](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/suicidal-thoughts), [Psychiatric Services](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/psychiatric-services), [black](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/black)

## [Black Children Less Likely to Report Suicidal Thoughts in Emergency Room, Study Suggests](https://alert.psychnews.org/2022/09/black-children-less-likely-to-report.html)

![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert) 

 9/27/22 12:00 AM

[ Read more ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2022/09/black-children-less-likely-to-report.html)

[![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/teen_therapist_43003774-Jun-24-2025-03-49-12-4583-PM.jpg?height=200&name=teen_therapist_43003774-Jun-24-2025-03-49-12-4583-PM.jpg) ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2018/05/visits-for-suicide-ideation-attempts.html)

[suicide](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/suicide), [pediatrics](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/pediatrics), [children](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/children), [youth](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/youth), [suicide attempt](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/suicide-attempt), [suicide ideation](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/suicide-ideation), [Pediatric Health Information System database](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/pediatric-health-information-system-database), [children's hospitals](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/childrens-hospitals), [Gregory Plemmons](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/gregory-plemmons)

## [Visits for Suicide Ideation, Attempts More Than Doubled at U.S. Children’s Hospitals Since 2008](https://alert.psychnews.org/2018/05/visits-for-suicide-ideation-attempts.html)

![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert) 

 6/24/24 11:16 AM

Surveillance studies have reported that the number of suicide ideation and suicide attempts have...

[ Read more ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2018/05/visits-for-suicide-ideation-attempts.html)

```json
{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Psychiatric News Alert",
    "url" : "https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2025-06-24T18:32:24.197Z",
  "datePublished" : "2015-05-27T04:00:00.000Z",
  "headline" : "Psych News Alert: Children's Suicide Rates Reflect Racial Differences",
  "image" : [ "https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/SwingInWinter_94412866-Jun-24-2025-06-29-43-9649-PM.jpg" ],
  "mainEntityOfPage" : {
    "@id" : "https://alert.psychnews.org/2015/05/childrens-suicide-rates-reflect-racial.html",
    "@type" : "WebPage"
  },
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "url" : "https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/PN-Blue-Box.jpg"
    }
  }
}
```