Even before the global health crisis spurred by the Coronavirus 2019, the rate of suicidal thoughts being experienced by young children had begun to rise.
While suicidal thoughts and self-harm among teens has been the subject of extensive research, there were fewer studies done on pre-teens.
According to research from the USA, "[t]he number of children ages 6-12 who visited children’s hospitals for suicidal thoughts or self-harm has more than doubled since 2016...
Visits for teenagers with suicidal thoughts or self-harm at these hospitals also rose from 2016 to 2019, but at a slower rate — by 44 percent, compared to 115 percent for younger children."
In the Caribbean, we are thankful that completed suicide by pre-teens is relatively rare. Anecdotally, there have been more of such incidents among children who were preparing to sit or recently sat the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination.
As for the causes behind the rise in suicidal thoughts among children in the USA, one doctor has opined that "multigenerational drug abuse, mental health issues and poverty have all worked together to create several generations of really, really unwell people”.
After the year that represented 2020 and the unique circumstances of 2021 to date, USA mental health experts may not be overreacting if they "fear that the pandemic — which has increased anxiety and depression among adults and teenagers, and resulted in an estimated 37,300 children losing a parent to Covid-19 — could compound the issues young children face."
As parents, guardians, educators and caregivers, we must become aware of the signs of children in distress, even at such tender ages.
The study referred to above can be explored in an NBC News article of 8th April 2021.
[Click here for the article - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/u...ay-it-began-n1263347]
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