Young adult suicide and exposure to television

Abstract

Young adult suicide rates tripled following the introduction of television into the United States and Canada. To assess whether exposure to television is a risk factor for young adult suicide (ages 15-24), suicide trends were compared between the U.S., Canada, and South Africa, 1949-1985. Major increases in young adult suicide rates occurred in all three countries, even though there was no television broadcasting in South Africa prior to 1975. For the U.S., the timing of a census region's acquisition of television did not correlate with the timing of the subsequent regional increase in young adult suicide rates (r = -0.01). Nonspecific exposure to television is not a risk factor for young adult suicide. Television producers still need to be judicious in their portrayals, and discussions, of suicide on television, because of the risks of imitative suicides, particularly among the young.