Suicide Rates to Teen Sex

Hello to everyone, I was surfing the net on suicides and was affected by how many teens die each year. I was looking up sucide rates because I lost one of my good friends a couple of years ago. What most people don't know is that suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 19 years. Every day, 14 young people (ages 15 to 24) commit suicide, or approximately 1 every 100 minutes. Almost all people who kill themselves have a diagnosable mental or substance use disorder; the majority have more than one. Fifty-three percent of young people who commit suicide abuse substances and four times as many men as women commit suicide, but young women attempt suicide three times more frequently than young men.

The findings are particularly true for young girls, says the USA Today Magazine, a conservative think tank that sponsored the research. About 25% of sexually active girls say they are depressed all, most, or a lot of the time; 8% of girls who are not sexually active feel the same. The study comes in the midst of a flurry of new reports on the sexual activity of teenagers. Such research is fodder for the growing debate on sex education in schools. The Bush administration backs abstinence programs.

The USA Today Shows:

• About 14% of girls who have had intercourse have attempted suicide ; 5% of sexually inactive girls have.

• About 6% of sexually active boys have tried suicide; less than 1% of sexually inactive boys have.