Nearly 1 in 10 Maryland high school students reported attempting suicide at least once in the year leading up to the fall of 2022, according to the latest results from a national survey administered every two years by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
An even greater share of students said they seriously considered attempting suicide (17.9%) or made a plan about how they would attempt suicide (14.3%), according to the Maryland Youth Risk Behavior Survey and Youth Tobacco Survey .
As alarming as those numbers are, they’re a marked improvement over the prior year when about 1 in 6 high schoolers said they had attempted to take their own life one or more times in the previous 12 months, a period when the coronavirus pandemic had closed most schools for in-person learning.
With such self-reported data, it can be difficult to understand what a child means when they say they have attempted suicide, said Dr. Gloria Reeves, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital and an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
High schoolers answering the question could be thinking about self-harm behaviors they’ve carried out not because they wanted to die, but because they were dealing with overwhelming feelings of numbness, isolation or stress. They also could be thinking of suicidal ideation that they never acted upon, but felt so intense and scary that they label it as an attempt. Or they could be describing a time when they’ve actually tried to take their own life.
Either way, it’s something “we should all really pay attention to and think about at every level how we can better support children,” Reeves said. “At a family, community, school-level and nationally.”
The CDC sponsors Youth Risk Behavior and Youth Tobacco surveys in states across the country in an effort to surveil behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disability and social challenges among children. Nearly 60,000 students in 368 public middle and high schools across Maryland participated in the latest version of the survey.
The survey administered to middle schoolers in Maryland in 2022 did not ask specifically about suicide, but roughly a third of students surveyed said they felt sad or hopeless.
While the most recent suicide data for high schoolers is striking, it represents the most significant improvement in suicide metrics in Maryland since they started being tracked by the survey in 2013. Since that year, the percent of students who reported seriously considering suicide or making a plan to do so has creeped upward in nearly every survey.
In 2021, the first year the survey asked students about suicide attempts, 17.3% of high schoolers said they had attempted to take their own life one or more times in the prior 12 months. Even more, 1 in 5, said they seriously considered suicide, and 15.4% said they made a plan for doing so.
The pain reflected in that year’s survey was likely exacerbated by the emotional turmoil and trauma triggered by the pandemic, Reeves said. The outbreak of the coronavirus caused a major disruption in children’s lives with virtual school and a separation from their friends, teachers and others who cared about whether they showed up every day. But it also contributed to surges of domestic violence, addiction and financial pressures that may have made children’s homes less physically and emotionally safe.
Prior suicide attempts are a risk factor for a child dying by suicide, Reeves said. Nationwide, suicide is the third leading cause of death for children ages 14 to 18, according to CDC data . In 2022, 35 children in Maryland in this age group died by suicide, an analysis of CDC data by The Baltimore Sun found.
Although men are more likely than women to die of suicide nationwide, the most recent survey data shows that girls in Maryland are twice as likely as boys to report seriously considering suicide (24.6% vs 11.4%) and attempting suicide (12.8% vs 6%). The survey showed girls also were roughly twice as likely to report feeling sad or hopeless than their male classmates. The share of students who said they felt sad or hopeless for at least two weeks improved slightly from 2021 to 2022.
According to the recent survey, American Indian and Alaska Native students were most likely to attempt suicide (12.1%), compared to their classmates of other races. Black students had the second highest likelihood (11.2%), followed by Hispanic and Latino students (10%). However, white students (31.2%) were more likely to report that their mental health was not good most of the time compared to their classmates of other races.
High school students in rural Caroline County on the Eastern Shore were the most likely to report having attempted suicide, according to survey data. In this county, 18.3% of students said they had done so, compared to 9.4% of students statewide. Students in Kent County, also on the Eastern Shore, were the most likely to seriously consider suicide (23.1%) and make a plan (18.6%).
Children who identify as LGBTQ+ are particularly vulnerable to experiencing mental health challenges, which may be exacerbated by bullying or family members they are scared to come out to, Reeves said.
Research also has showed that girls, particularly Black girls, are more likely than their male classmates to experience sexual coercion or assault, which Reeves said could contribute to the disparity in suicide attempt data.
But, she added, each of these groups also have unique strengths that counselors and advocates can lean upon when building mental health interventions.
She encouraged parents to teach themselves and their kids about the resources available through 988 — the national suicide and crisis hotline — before they need them. If parents are worried about their child, but are hesitant to reach out to a mental health worker, Reeves advised them to get in touch with their child’s pediatrician or a counselor at their school. They’ll be able to offer help quickly, and give advice on whether something a child is experiencing is developmentally normal, or concerning and necessitates a higher level of intervention.
But one of the best things parents can do for their child, Reeves said, is to take care of their own mental health.
“When you show your child that you prioritize time for your own mental health, get the help and support you need,” Reeves said, “they’re going to remember that a lot more than even the words you say.”
Other trends
The CDC survey also asked students about substance use.
Roughly the same percentages of high school students reported using cigarettes (3%), smokeless tobacco (3%), e-cigarettes (14%) and alcohol (18%) last year as they did in 2021, which reflected the lowest numbers to date, according to survey results.
However, according to the survey, there was a slight increase in cigar use, with a bump from 3% of high schoolers in 2021 to 4% in the latest survey.
Statewide, roughly 14% of high schoolers said they regularly used a vapor product, with 97% of these students saying they usually vape flavors other than tobacco flavors.
Also roughly 14% of high school students reported using marijuana one or more times during the 30 days before the survey. That’s lower than the share of high schoolers who reported doing so in the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, when nearly 20% of high school students said they’d used the drug one or more times during the 30 days leading up to the survey.
High school students who identify as LGBTQ+ were more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to report “sometimes, rarely or never” feeling like they could talk to an adult about their feelings — 68% compared with 54%, according to the survey.
The survey also found that Black, Hispanic/Latino and Asian high school students were more likely to report feeling like they were ever treated poorly or unfairly in school because of their race or ethnicity, compared with white students.
If you are struggling with your mental health or have thoughts of suicide, help is available. Call or text 988 to speak with a specialized counselor, who can listen, offer emotional support and connect you with community resources.
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