Knowing someone who attempted suicide raises young people’s own risk – new study

Maskot/Getty Scientists have long known suicide can be “ contagious ” in young people.

This means knowing someone who has attempted suicide makes teens and young adults more likely to develop suicidal thoughts and behaviours themselves.

But despite decades of research, it has not been clear precisely how this works.

A new study of more than 2,000 young people, done by a US research group and published today, offers some new insights.

What we already knew Suicidal thoughts and behaviours typically first emerge during adolescence and young adulthood.

This is also when peer relationships take on increasing importance in young people’s lives.

And we know the risk of suicide is strongly linked to this peer influence during adolescence.

Research shows the suicidal behaviours of individuals within a close network can lead to their peers also developing suicidal thoughts and behaviours.

This risk of suicide contagion is higher for teenagers and young adults, compared with later in life.

Read more: What’s the difference between intrusive thoughts and suicidal thoughts? However, it has not been clear how suicidal behaviour spreads through young people’s social networks.

For example, researchers have suggested it could be linked to copycat effects , group conformity or belonging , or because peers share other factors linked to higher suicide risk, such as financial instability or living remotely.

The researchers noted that previous research about suicide contagion in young people was mostly done before digital networks took on such a central role in their social lives.

And most research has only looked at suicide exposure at a single point in time.

So it hasn’t been clear how much it may shape risk over time.