By Karen
Sternheimer

Back in 2007, I blogged about the many misperceptions
about suicide. Many assumptions surround suicide, specifically the notion
that suicide is a much bigger problem now than in the past and one that
disproportionally affects young people. Both of these assumptions are
incorrect.

As you can see from the graph below, over the past two
decades suicide rates have been relatively flat. While there have been slight
increases since 2000, over the past two decades rates have fallen slightly for
both males and females. Note that males are consistently more likely to commit
suicide, with rates more than four times that of females. And while we are
familiar with the term “teen suicide,” which has been described frequently as a
social problem, the problem of “male suicide” might be more apt.

U.S. Suicide Rates
1991-2009, Age Ten and Over, by Sex

Source: Centers
for Disease Control, 2012

So why do we often consider suicide—and teen suicide in
particular—a growing problem? High profile cases might help us think so. As I
write about in the new edition of Connecting Social Problems and Popular
Culture, tragic stories involving bullied young people who later commit
suicide have been in the headlines in recent years.

Young people who have been
the target of homophobia have gotten a lot of attention, particularly as the
push for gay rights has expanded recently. Take the death of Rutgers
University student Tyler Clementi,
who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate streamed his
encounter with another man live on the internet. This case made national news,
including the cover of People
magazine. His roommate
was charged and tried and later convicted on several counts, including
invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. Suicides that seem to involve young
people, bullying, the internet and social networking are likely to make
headlines.

This tragic incident helped the public focus on suicides
among young people. As you can see below another very interesting trend has emerged
that has been practically ignored: the decline in elder suicides and uptick
amongst those in the middle age group.

U.S. Suicide Rates, by Age

Why might suicides among the elderly decline? Perhaps people
stay healthier later in life, and are more likely to access mental health care
now than in the past. Learning from this decline can help us better understand
what may help lower suicide rates in other age groups.

The Centers
for Disease Control (CDC) recently released data that demonstrate significant
increases in suicide rates among adults in their 50s, nearly doubling from a
decade earlier. Why might this be? The CDC 
isn’t sure. “Most suicide research and prevention efforts have focused
on youths and older adults. Although the analysis in this report does not
explain why suicide rates are increasing so substantially among middle-aged
adults, the results underscore the importance of prevention strategies.”

Citing a recent Surgeon
General’s report, the CDC concludes:

Suicide prevention strategies such
as those that enhance social support, community connectedness, and access to
mental health and preventive services, as well as efforts to reduce stigma and
barriers associated with seeking help, are important for addressing suicide
risk across the lifespan. Other strategies are likely to be particularly critical
for addressing the needs of middle-aged adults, such as those that help persons
overcome risk factors, which include economic challenges, job loss, intimate
partner problems or violence, the stress of caregiver responsibilities (often
for children and aging parents), substance abuse, and declining health or
chronic health problems.

These are issues that seldom make the news as precipitating
events for suicide, since we focus so much attention to challenges in
adolescence and young adulthood. The CDC has data on the most common events
that precede suicide, as seen below.

Data from the CDC tell us that the risk of suicide rates
increases with age, until age 65, and that access to mental health care is
important across the life span—it does not end with adolescence. As noted above, men are also
at much greater risk for suicide than women, as are Native
Americans and non-Hispanic whites, whose rates are more than double those
of African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans.

Looking at actual data is a great way to test whether
commonly held assumptions are correct. In this case, we have a lot to learn
about why people might decide to take their own lives. Suicide is not caused just
by personal psychological problems; challenges with relationships, work, and
physical health are central to understanding suicide, and are central to
helping to create other solutions for people in desperate situations. Addressing
broader social issues like access to health care, the economy, and family
stressors can play significant roles in reducing suicides, particularly among people
who might be facing financial problems after the Great Recession with aging
parents and children of their own to care for.

How we think about suicide matters, so much so that the American
Society for Suicide Prevention offers suggestions for reporters to provide
the public with a more accurate picture. For instance, they suggest checking CDC data before
claiming that rates are “skyrocketing” or part of a new epidemic. They warn
against sensationalizing individual cases, and emphasize that suicide is a
public health issue.

What hypotheses can we create based on these data? About the
relationship between gender and suicide? Race/ethnicity and suicide? The recent
increase among people in their 50s?

What other assumptions do we often hold about suicide—or
another social issue—that we can use data to study more closely?