What is it about?
A recent national study reported that U.S. high school students have shown increasing self-reported suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts from 2007 to 2021. This plain-language summary highlights three points to better interpret what these trends mean. First, reports may rise not only because distress is increasing, but also because stigma is decreasing and young people may feel more able to disclose suicidal feelings—so survey data should be compared with more objective indicators such as emergency visits or hospitalizations for self-harm. Second, looking at one characteristic at a time (for example, race or sex) may miss groups at especially high risk; combining identities (such as being both a sexual minority and facing other forms of disadvantage) can reveal vulnerabilities that single categories hide. Third, while schools are important places for screening and support, suicide risk is also shaped by broader social conditions like poverty, discrimination, and online harassment, so prevention must involve more than the education system.
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Why is it important?
This is important because the same trend can be misunderstood. If we assume the rise in survey reports always means more suicide behavior, we may choose the wrong response. Some of the rise may be because teens feel safer to speak up. To decide what to do, we need to check survey trends against real-world outcomes and then focus support on the teens most at risk. Getting the interpretation right leads to better prevention and better use of resources.
Perspectives
As a clinician, I think we should treat rising teen suicidality reports as a serious warning, but interpret them carefully. Some of the increase may reflect more distress, and some may reflect that teens feel safer to speak up as stigma decreases. Both matter, and our response should be based on more than surveys alone. I hope future work will link survey trends to real-world outcomes (such as emergency visits for self-harm) and use methods that can find teens who face more than one kind of risk at the same time, especially those who are often overlooked. In practice, effective prevention will need strong support in schools and clinics, plus action on broader social and online harms.
Shota Hanyu
Aino Hanazono Hospital
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Rising Suicidality Among U.S. Adolescents: Interpreting the Signal Beyond the Trend, American Journal of Psychiatry, February 2026, American Psychiatric Association,
DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.20250750.
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