Did “13 Reasons Why” lead to a rise in suicides among teenagers?
When the series began streaming on Netflix NFLX, +0.18% in March 2017, child psychologists and parents warned that a show about teenage suicide could cause young people who watched the series to carry out copycat suicides. The show, based on the book of the same name by Jay Asher, follows the story of Hanna Baker, a teenager who kills herself and leaves behind a cassette tape outlining 13 reasons why she decided to take her own life.
A study released this week and published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry said there was a 29% increase in suicides among American teenagers aged 10 to 17 in the month (April 2017) after the show aired. “Caution regarding the exposure of children and adolescents to the series is warranted,” the authors said. The link between the show and suicides is correlational, the authors said; as with most studies, it does not prove cause and effect.
‘Caution regarding the exposure of children and adolescents to the series is warranted.’
The number of deaths by suicide recorded in April 2017, just one month after the show’s release, was greater than the number seen in any single month during the five-year period examined by the researchers. However, the researchers found that the increase in the suicide rate was driven by significant increases in suicide in young males. The suicide rate also increased among females after the show’s release, but that rise was not statistically significant.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), among several universities and hospitals, conducted the study. “The results of this study should raise awareness that young people are particularly vulnerable to the media,” Lisa Horowitz, a clinical scientist at the NIMH, said in a statement. “All disciplines, including the media, need to take good care to be constructive and thoughtful about topics that intersect with public health crises.”
Netflix was not immediately available for comment, but a spokesperson for the company told The Associated Press, “This is a critically important topic and we have worked hard to ensure that we handle this sensitive issue responsibly.” The spokesperson cited a recent survey with a sample size of 729 young people aged 18 to 29 years old who reported declines in suicide ideation and self-harm after viewing the entire second season of “13 Reasons Why.”
There are other underlying reasons why teenagers and children may be at risk. Younger children who died by suicide more often experienced relationship problems with family members and friends and less often had boyfriend/girlfriend problems or left a suicide note, a 2016 study published in the journal Pediatrics found. Among those with mental-health problems, childhood suicides more often involved attention-deficit disorder and depression in older children.
There may be other underlying mental-health reasons why young people take their own lives.
There has also been a small increase in the number of children at risk of suicide in recent years. There were 115,856 visits to hospitals by children who attempted suicide or had suicidal thoughts between 2008 and 2015, according to a study released last year in Pediatrics, the official journal from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The annual percentage of visits by children for those two reasons almost doubled, from 0.66% in 2008 to 1.82% in 2015.
However, the study noted that more teenagers than younger children arrived at hospitals with such feelings of despair. “Significant increases were noted in all age groups, but were higher in adolescents 15 to 17 years old and adolescents 12 to 14 years old,” the report said. The rise coincided with the spring and fall semesters of school, and dipped during the summer, suggesting that issues are compounded in school.
Netflix has also created the 13ReasonsWhy.info resource page to encourage troubled youth to get help by highlighting the free and confidential 24/7 Crisis Text Line (text REASON to 741741) and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255), as well as more resources to get help. SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education) has also built a online 13 Reasons Why Toolkit with doctors to help parents, educators and young people process the issues on the show.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.
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Can someone please broadcast a series about nigger and Mohammedan suicide.
Niggers an Muslims rarely commit suicide , they are to busy killing each other or making everyone that has to tolerate their combined shithole mentality wish for death to come swiftly ! You pick which party to take the walk towards the light it’s all in your perspective !
Now there is some politically correct coexist bill shit !
Good Question Yumbo ,why do we let Jewish traitors control the media ? Could it be because the White Traitors in Washington DC want it this way .We have been betrayed ,sold out and lied to so often it’s almost seems normal unless you have been red pilled. It’s like the white population has been put under a massive satanic spell.
Hollywood loves to incite violence, propaganda, narratives and never takes any blame….
If there was ever a time that Netflix was just an unbiased media portal, that time is long gone. Anyone who still has a subscription should be ashamed of themselves.
And shortly after the premier of Teen Mom on MTV, there was actually a statistically significant DECLINE in teen pregnancies. Now that there are 12 different versions of the show, and nearly all of the moms have gone onto mass celebrity status, teen pregnancies are skyrocketing again.
The Decline of Western Civilization will not only be televised on MTV, Bravo, TNT (I am Jazz), and other mainstream media outlets, it is also being ushered along by all of them too.