Suicides among children under 13 are thought to be rare, however, research has revealed the country where from 1999 through 2015, over 1,309 children between the ages of 5 and 12 have taken their own lives.
The Center For Disease Control has said children under 13 died of suicide nearly every five days, on average, over those 17 years in the United States.
The frequency reportedly became higher from 2013 to 2015, that is once every 3.4 days, which represent a 54% spike in the suicides of 11 and 12 year-olds compared to the three years prior.
There were 0.31 suicides per 100,000 children ages 5-12 during those 17 years, when compared that to 7.04 suicides per 100,000 people ages 13-18, or 17.39 per 100,000 for ages 18 to 65.
That study examined suicides in 17 states from 2003 to 2012, and broke down the factors among ages 5-11 and 12-14.
The factors it presented are; Relationship problems — such as arguments or other issues with friends and relatives — were the most common factor for both groups. Given their ages, the problems, naturally, were more likely to involve boyfriend/girlfriend issues in the older group.
Documented mental health problems were also reported to be equally prevalent in both groups (about 33%). But differences in the types of mental issues were intriguing.
Attention-deficit disorder was more also discovered to be common in the 5-11 group, whereas the 12-14 set was more likely to have had been diagnosed with depression.
That might mean the younger kids are more susceptible to responding impulsively to problems, said Sheftall, a research scientist at the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio.
Sheftall said, “I think having (the) information that we are seeing ADD/ADHD in kids (5-11) dying by suicide may help us to intervene differently in that age group.”
It was also discovered that most children under 13 who kill themselves are boys, as 76% of those who died in 1999-2015 were male.