Children’s Risk of Suicide Increases on School Days

Unlike in adults, suicide risk among children is lowest during the summer and higher during the school year. Understanding these patterns can help prevent and treat suicidality

Reading about death and suicidality can be distressing. Please read this in a moment where you feel safest and ready to do so.

Pediatricians, child psychologists and psychiatrists, social workers and pediatric emergency teams know something that many people who care for children don’t: we are much busier during the school year. I’m a full-time emergency psychiatrist who works at a major children’s hospital, and often when children come in for a mental health crisis, one of the main stressors they discuss is school.

I’m sure most people assume I commonly prescribe medications as a physician, but one of my most common “prescriptions” is advocating for reducing school burden and load. In a 2013 American Psychological Association survey, 83 percent of adolescents stated that school was a cause or significant source of stress. In a 2017 survey of school leaders in the U.K., 82 percent reported increased mental health issues among primary school children during the time of national examinations. In studies in 2013 and 2015, scientists studying homework in the U.S. found that primary school children were averaging 30 minutes of such work per night, while high-performing secondary students were averaging more than three hours per night, at the cost of their physical health and schoolwork-life balance...

Children's Risk of Suicide Increases on School Days - Scientific American