(NBC) – For years, more boys than girls have taken their own lives — but that divide is narrowing. And it’s not because fewer boys are dying by suicide. It’s because the number of girls doing so is rising, according to research released Friday by Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Suicide is still a leading cause of death among teenagers, but the researchers found a disproportionate increase in the number of suicides by younger girls from the ages of 10 to 14.
“We can’t think it’s just a male problem,” said study author Donna Ruch, a researcher at Nationwide Children’s Center for Suicide Prevention and Research. Ruch and her colleagues analyzed national data on suicides from 1975 to 2016 among children and teens 10 to 19. Suicide rates fell during the 1990s, but started to climb in 2007, according to the study published Friday in JAMA Network Open. Rates increased among both boys and girls, but more so for girls. READ MORE
