Explaining the Rise in Youth Suicide

David Cutler, Edward Glaeser and Karen Norberg ()

No 1917, Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers from Harvard - Institute of Economic Research

Abstract: Suicide rates among youths aged 15-24 have tripled in the past half-century, even as rates for adults and the elderly have declined. And for every youth suicide completion, there are nearly 400 suicide attempts. This paper examines the dynamics of youth suicide attempts and completions, and reaches three conclusions. First, we suggest that many suicide attempts by youths can be viewed as a strategic action on the part of the youth to resolve conflicts within oneself or with others. Youths have little direct economic or familial power, and in such a situation, self-injury can be used to signal distress or to encourage a response by others. Second, we present evidence for contagion effects. Youths who have a friend or family members who attempts or commits suicide are more likely to attempt or commit suicide themselves. Finally, we show that to the extent we can explain the rise in youth suicide over time, the most important explanatory variable is the increased share of youths living in homes with a divorced parent. The divorce rate is more important for suicides than either the share of children living with step-parents or the share of female-headed households

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.economics.harvard.edu/pub/hier/2001/HIER1917.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.economics.harvard.edu/pub/hier/2001/HIER1917.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.economics.harvard.edu/pub/hier/2001/HIER1917.pdf)

Related works:
Chapter: Explaining the Rise in Youth Suicide (2001)
Working Paper: Explaining the Rise in Youth Suicide (2000)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:harver:1917

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers from Harvard - Institute of Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().