'40 per cent of youths attempt suicide before high school'

The University of Washington study found that while about one of nine youths attempt suicide by the time they graduate from high school, nearly 40 per cent make their first attempt in elementary or middle school.

The research, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, also found that suicide attempts during childhood and adolescence were linked to higher scores of depression at the time of the attempts, validating for the first time that young adults can reliably recall when they first attempted suicide.

"Young adults who end up having chronic mental health problems show their struggles early," said Dr James Mazza, a professor of educational psychology who led the study.

"This study suggests that implementation of mental health programmes may need to start in elementary and middle schools, and that youth in these grades are fairly good reporters of their mental health," he was quoted as saying by LiveScience.

As part of an ongoing survey, Mazza and his collaborators asked 883 young adults aged 18 or 19 about their history of suicide attempts. Seventy-eight respondents, nearly nine per cent, said that they had tried suicide at some point.

Suicide attempt rates showed a sharp increase around sixth grade, about age 12, with rates peaking around eighth or ninth grade, the researchers found.

For the 39 of the participants who reported multiple suicide attempts, their first attempt was significantly earlier, as young as nine, than those making a single attempt.

According to the researchers, adolescence can often be a struggle for some youth with ongoing pressures of drugs, alcohol, sexual relationships and sexual orientation. At the same time, they are becoming more autonomous.

"Adolescence is a time when kids are preparing to be more independent from their parents or guardians, but lack the experience of how to do this. And their support network, their friends, doesn't have the experience either, especially in crisis situations," said Mazza.

The researchers also compared the teenagers' recollection of their suicide attempts with their past depression scores, which were collected yearly as part of their participation in the study.

Depression levels were higher at the time of the youths' reported first suicide attempts compared with their peers who had not attempted suicide. And Mazza found an increase in depression scores at the time of the attempt compared with depression scores the year before and after the attempt for the same child.

"This suggests that kids are able to tell us, by their depression scores, that things aren't going well for them," Mazza said.

"We are likely not giving kids enough credence in assessing their own mental health, and this study shows that we can rely on self-report measures to help identify youth who may be at risk for current mental health concerns, including possible suicidal behaviour."