Temporal Patterns in Youth Suicide Deaths Reported in the National Violent Death Reporting System
Victoria R Hatton1, Elaine Clark2, Rebekah S Huber3
1Department of Educational Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Purpose:
Suicide is a leading cause of death in children and adolescents. Prevention efforts may benefit from examining temporal patterns and precipitating circumstances of youth suicide deaths. The purpose of this study was to investigate if there are distinct temporal patterns of suicide death for youth.
Methods:
We examined the distributions of suicide deaths across months of the year and days of the week in youth ages 10-18 using data from the National Violent Death Reporting System.
Results:
We found that youth suicides peaked during March, April, and October on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. When disaggregated by separate years of age, we discovered unique patterns in 18-year-olds and 10-year-olds. Suicides peaked during July for 18-year-olds and on Saturday for 10-year-olds.
Discussion:
These findings suggest a need to examine temporal patterns by separate years of age, as grouping ages together may mask unique trends.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Introduction To Survival Analysis
The primary goal of survival analysis is to estimate survival time—the time...
Longitudinal Research
Bullying
Actuarial Approach
Consider the example of a high-risk surgical procedure with significant early-stage mortality. A two-year clinical study is conducted,...
Cross-Sectional Research
Assumptions of Survival Analysis


