Gender Gap in Youth Suicide Has Almost Disappeared

A gender gap long seen in the suicide rates of 10- to 14-year-olds in the U.S. has tightened, new research indicated.

In 2017, the suicide rate of boys was twice that of girls (3.28 vs 1.66 per 100,000 population), but by 2024, it was only 4% higher (2.38 vs 2.28), reported Jean Twenge, PhD, of San Diego State University.

The suicide rate for boys decreased by 35% from 2018 to 2024, while it increased 13% for girls. From 2007 to 2024, the suicide rate for 10- to 14-year-old boys nearly doubled (from 1.20 to 2.38), while for girls it more than quadrupled (from 0.51 to 2.28), she wrote in JAMA Pediatrics.

“Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 10- to 14-year-olds, after accidents,” Twenge told MedPage Today in emailed remarks. “To put this age group in context, they are in fourth through ninth grade; most are in middle school.”

Historically, suicide rates have been higher for males than for females across all age groups, but between 2007 and 2016, the rate for 10- to 19-year-old girls increased more than the rate for boys, “thus narrowing the gender gap in suicide rates,” Twenge wrote. “However, trends in the gender gap in youth suicide in the U.S. in more recent years, including during the peak years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021) and afterward, are not well understood.”

The nearly equal suicide rates for 10- to 14-year-old boys and girls seen in this study marked the “first time this has happened in the available records,” Twenge told MedPage Today. “So among 10- to 14-year-olds, girls and boys are now equally likely to take their own lives.”

She noted that a “similar collapse in the gender gap appeared in a broader age group in Japan, South Korea, and Spain, where the suicide rate of 10- to 19-year-old female individuals exceeded that of male individuals in recent years.”

Regarding the implications for clinicians, she said that suicide prevention programs should address risk factors that apply to both boys and girls.

“Efforts to reduce suicide rates may have been successful for boys since 2018, but they have not been as successful for girls,” she added. “Consideration should be given to suicide risk factors more prevalent for girls in this age group, such as social comparison, relational bullying, excessive social media use, and self-harm behaviors.”

There have been a number of troubling trends in youth suicides reported in recent years, including findings that, as preteen suicides increased, most youths went undiagnosed for mental health issues, and that knowing someone who had attempted suicide was associated with subsequent attempts in teens and young adults.

In the current study, the narrowing gender gap in suicide rates was observed among non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white 10- to 14-year-olds, with the suicide rate for Black girls exceeding that for Black boys in 2024 (sex ratio=0.97).

The gender gap also narrowed in urban and suburban areas, with the suicide rate of urban and suburban girls exceeding that of boys in 2024 (sex ratio=0.93). However, in rural areas, the trend was “less discernible.”

“Future research should explore the possible reasons behind these trends, including determining risk factors for suicide that have declined for boys but increased or stayed steady for girls in the postpandemic era,” she noted, “which may inform suicide prevention programs and interventions.”

Twenge used data from the Web-Based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System, maintained by the CDC, to complete her study.