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 The steady seven-year rise in middle school suicides, from an annual
rate of 0.9 to 2.1 per 100,000, came as traffic deaths among the
same age group declined to 1.9 per 100,000, according to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The motor vehicle mortality rate reported for 2014, the latest year
for which such data was available, marked a 60 percent decline from
1999, when the government began tracking such figures.
In aggregate numbers, 425 young people 10 to 14 years of age took
their own lives in 2014, compared with 384 who perished in
automobile accidents that year, according to the CDC.
Those figures contrasted sharply with figures from 1999, when the
rate of middle school students killed in car crashes, was four times
higher than the rate among those who died from suicide that year.
"Any rise (in youth suicides) should be of concern, there's no
doubt," Mark Kaplan, a professor of social welfare at the University
of California, Los Angeles, said in a phone interview, commenting on
the findings.
"In time we might uncover some reasons, but a cautionary note [is]
not to rush to any conclusions from this," Kaplan said.
The underlying causes of suicide are highly complex, making it
difficult to explain the trends documented by the CDC, he added.
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The leading overall cause of death for Americans 10 to 14 years of
age remains accidents of all kinds, including car crashes,
accounting for 750 fatalities in that age group in 2014, according
to the CDC.
Mortality rates from traffic collisions among all age groups have
decreased over several decades in the United States, which observers
attribute in part to improved safety features in cars, such as
airbags.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Steve
Gorman and Michael Perry)
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