The suicide rate among elementary school children has been stable over the past 20 years, but according to a new study, a closer look reveals that there has been a significant increase in the number of young black boys committing suicide, Raw Story reports.
That uptick has been masked by the proportionate decrease in the number of young white boys committing suicide, which is why the rise among black boys didn’t set off any alarms or affect the data representing the overall rate of young children committing suicide.
Researchers at the Research Institute of Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, focused on children between the ages of 5 and 11 who committed suicide from 1993 to 2012. The rate among young black girls also rose during this time period, although, as Raw Story explains, it was not statistically significant and not nearly as drastic a change as the rate among young black boys.
While there was no concrete data to explain the uptick in suicide rates among black boys, researchers pointed to violence, traumatic stress and an early onset of puberty as possible factors.
Read more at Raw Story.