Causes of Teenage Suicide

Every year thousands of youth in the United States die, not by car

accidents or diseases, but by their own hands. Every 90 seconds a teenager

commits suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15 to 25

year olds. Suicide accounts for 12 percent of the mortality in the adolescent and

young adult group. Males are more likely than females to follow through with

suicide. For every successful suicide there are fifty to one hundred adolescent

suicide attempts. More than five percent of all teenagers try to commit suicide.

Many factors contribute to teenage suicide.

Most teens who attempt suicide are in a deep depression. This

depression can be caused by two major factors. These include stress and

significant loss. Stress causes most depression. Stress itself has many factors.

Two of them include pressure to succeed and stress from relationships. The

pressure to succeed may be to get high grades, get a good job, be accepted into

a prestige college, or to excel, “win” in sports. The significant loss may be of a

job, loved one, or health.

Equally important to depression is low self esteem. We live in a

society that emphasizes a high standard of beauty. The newspapers,

magazines, movies, and television are all filled with images of beautiful, “perfect”

people. For example, Cindy Crawford, she has done numerous advertisements

for things such as makeup and she ha...