An American study demonstrates for the first time the link between digital self-harm and suicide attempts in adolescents.
- Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-24 year olds, behind road accidents, worldwide.
- In France, it causes between 300 and 350 deaths of young people per year in this age group, including three times more boys than girls (2017).
- In 2021, there were 23,791 visits to the emergency room for suicidal gestures, compared to 17,333 in 2020 (the average being 19,586 for the years 2018-2019).
Teens who engage in self-harm online are 9 to 15 times more likely to end their lives. These are the results of a study on suicide among young people aged 12 to 17, published in the journal Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
9% of respondents say they have already engaged in this practice at least once, which consists of publishing or sharing very negative or hurtful things about oneself anonymously online. 5% even report cyberbullying themselves anonymously.
8% of teenagers have already thought about suicide
With regard to suicidal tendencies, approximately 8% of adolescents report having seriously thought about committing suicide in the past year, while 5.3% report having attempted suicide.
There were no significant differences between genders and ethnicities. But non-heterosexual students were significantly more likely to have seriously thought about suicide compared to heterosexual students (24.4% vs. 6.9%) and to have attempted suicide (10% vs. 4.9% ). 12-year-olds are more likely to think about suicide than other age groups, but for suicide attempts, there is no difference by age.
A result that serves as a warning
This study from Florida Atlantic University, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Florida International University, is the first to empirically demonstrate an association between digital self-harm and suicide attempts. The researchers surveyed a large national sample of middle school and high school students aged 12 to 17 in the United States.
The findings serve as a warning about online self-harm among young people and its link to suicidal thoughts and behaviors. “When considering the marked increase in sadness and hopelessness among American adolescents over the past 10 years, our results provide another indicator that reflects a deterioration in mental health status among adolescents”underlined Professor Sameer Hinduja, co-author of the study, in a communicated.
