Abstract

Recently, the intensity and complexity of mental illness and suicide has been on the rise among children and adolescents. In 2019, 124,020 high school students across the U.S. reported attempting suicide. The mental health of high school students is influenced by personal and environmental factors, including state-level health education policies on mental and emotional health and suicide prevention. Through the proposed ecological research study, mental and emotional health education as well as suicide prevention education state policies will be compared to suicide attempts within high school students throughout the United States.

Data from the 2019 Youth Behavior Risk Surveillance System (YRBS) on self-reported suicide attempts by high school students from 43 states were included in this study. Participants responded to a questionnaire on health risk behaviors and were included in the study if they reported attempted suicide within the past 12 months. Data on state-level school health policies on mental and emotional health education and suicide prevention were collected from the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE). Odds ratios determined association and independent-samples t-test were conducted to compare suicide attempts in states with and without each type of policy in place.

States with policies in place had lower rates of suicide attempts among high school students, however, t-test results showed that there were not significant differences in the means. Future research considerations should examine where differences exist in suicide attempts and other suicide-related behaviors while controlling for demographic factors such as race/ethnicity, gender, grade level, and sexual orientation.