<p>Mass layoffs can push some teenagers, especially girls, towards suicide and other suicide-related behaviour, says an alarming study.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"We know that suicide increases among adults when communities are hit with widespread layoffs. Now we have evidence that teenagers are similarly affected," said Gassman-Pines from Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.<br /><br />The study is based on a nationally representative survey of 403,457 adolescents from 1997 to 2009 in the US.<br /><br />Gassman-Pines also examined mass layoffs and closings in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia.<br /><br />She found that when one percent of a state's working population lost jobs, suicide-related behaviour increased by two to three percentage points among girls and black adolescents in the following year.<br /><br />Among girls, thoughts of suicide and suicide plans rose while among black teenagers, thoughts of suicide, suicide plans and suicide attempts all increased.<br /><br />For girls, economic hardship appears to have worsened existing tendencies.<br /><br />"On the whole, girls have higher rates of suicide ideation and planning than boys. Rates of suicide attempts are higher among black teenagers than among white teens," Gassman-Pines maintained.<br /><br />The research appeared online in the American Journal of Public Health.<br /></p>
<p>Mass layoffs can push some teenagers, especially girls, towards suicide and other suicide-related behaviour, says an alarming study.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"We know that suicide increases among adults when communities are hit with widespread layoffs. Now we have evidence that teenagers are similarly affected," said Gassman-Pines from Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.<br /><br />The study is based on a nationally representative survey of 403,457 adolescents from 1997 to 2009 in the US.<br /><br />Gassman-Pines also examined mass layoffs and closings in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia.<br /><br />She found that when one percent of a state's working population lost jobs, suicide-related behaviour increased by two to three percentage points among girls and black adolescents in the following year.<br /><br />Among girls, thoughts of suicide and suicide plans rose while among black teenagers, thoughts of suicide, suicide plans and suicide attempts all increased.<br /><br />For girls, economic hardship appears to have worsened existing tendencies.<br /><br />"On the whole, girls have higher rates of suicide ideation and planning than boys. Rates of suicide attempts are higher among black teenagers than among white teens," Gassman-Pines maintained.<br /><br />The research appeared online in the American Journal of Public Health.<br /></p>