Qualità delle prove 4.75/5
Punteggio di revisione su otto dimensioni rispetto alla griglia di qualità . Ogni dimensione valutata da 1 a 5.
- D1 Ancoraggio alle fonti
- 5/5
- D2 Autorità delle fonti
- 5/5
- D3 Aritmetica
- 4/5
- D4 Incertezza
- 5/5
- D5 Ambito
- 5/5
- D6 Prosa
- 5/5
- D7 Onestà sulla percezione
- 4/5
- D8 Completezza degli avvertimenti
- 5/5
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Percepito
La maggior parte dei genitori americani sottostima drasticamente quanto siano comuni i tentativi di suicidio tra gli adolescenti. Quando il CDC riporta che circa uno studente delle superiori su dieci ha tentato il suicidio nell'ultimo anno, il numero arriva come uno shock — i genitori di adolescenti tendono a stimare qualcosa di più vicino a uno su cento o uno su diverse centinaia, in parte perché i tentativi sono molto meno visibili dei decessi e in parte perché gli adolescenti che tentano raramente lo dicono ai genitori. L'inquadramento culturale del suicidio adolescenziale si appoggia pesantemente sui suicidi completati (notizie, assemblee scolastiche dopo un decesso), che sono molto più rari dei tentativi in questa fascia d'età. Quell'asimmetria significa che il modello mentale pubblico è ancorato al tasso di mortalità (~7 ogni 100.000 per le età 15-19) piuttosto che al tasso di tentativi nell'ultimo anno (~9.500 ogni 100.000 studenti delle superiori), un divario di circa tre ordini di grandezza nella direzione sbagliata.
Stima approssimativa: La maggior parte dei genitori stimerebbe molto al di sotto di 1 su 100 all'anno; la cifra reale è circa 1 su 10
Fonte: intuizione editoriale, non sondata
Effettivo
~9,5 % degli studenti delle superiori ha tentato il suicidio nell'ultimo anno (2023)
studenti delle scuole superiori statunitensi, classi 9-12 (YRBS 2023)
Mostra calcolo
La YRBS 2023 riporta una prevalenza di tentativi nell'ultimo anno del 9,5 % tra gli studenti delle superiori (classi 9-12). La NSDUH 2023 riporta una prevalenza di tentativi nell'ultimo anno del 3,3 % tra tutti gli adolescenti di 12-17 anni. Il dato NSDUH è inferiore perché include adolescenti più giovani (12-13) con tassi più bassi e usa un'intervista a domicilio anziché un'indagine anonima basata sulla scuola. Per una stima cumulativa «almeno una volta durante l'adolescenza», comporre ingenuamente il tasso NSDUH su 6 anni (età 12-17) dà 1 - (1 - 0,033)^6 = 0,183, ma questo sovrastima l'incidenza cumulativa perché molti adolescenti che tentano sono tentatori ripetuti negli anni — gli stessi individui compaiono in più sezioni trasversali annuali. Al contrario, il tasso NSDUH probabilmente sottostima chi tenta una singola volta a causa del bias di desiderabilità sociale dell'intervista a domicilio. I due bias si compensano parzialmente. Usiamo 0,18 (~1 su 6) come stima centrale per la probabilità che un adolescente statunitense tenti il suicidio almeno una volta tra i 12 e i 17 anni. Lo scope è subgroup_lifetime perché questo si applica solo alla finestra adolescenziale, non all'intera vita adulta.
Avvertenze: La YRBS e la NSDUH usano metodologie, popolazioni e definizioni diverse, motivo …
La YRBS e la NSDUH usano metodologie, popolazioni e definizioni diverse, motivo per cui i loro numeri principali differiscono (9,5 % vs 3,3 %). Nessuna delle due indagini verifica i tentativi auto-riferiti rispetto ai registri medici — alcuni «tentativi» riportati potrebbero essere classificati meglio come autolesionismo non suicidario (NSSI), e alcuni tentativi genuini non vengono segnalati nemmeno in sondaggi anonimi. La cifra cumulativa dell'adolescenza (0,18) è una stima, non una quantità misurata direttamente; nessuna indagine statunitense segue la stessa coorte di adolescenti longitudinalmente con valutazione annuale dei tentativi, quindi la vera incidenza cumulativa è incerta. La YRBS 2023 ha mostrato un modesto miglioramento rispetto al picco del 2021 per diversi indicatori — la percentuale di studenti che hanno seriamente considerato di tentare il suicidio è scesa dal 22 % al 20 %, e i tassi di tentativi degli studenti neri sono scesi dal 14 % al 10 % — ma i livelli rimangono storicamente elevati rispetto alla linea di base 2009-2013. Tutte le cifre sono auto-riferite e soggette a bias di richiamo, effetti di desiderabilità sociale e ambiguità definitoria su cosa costituisca un «tentativo».
Come varia il rischio
La cifra principale è una media di situazioni molto diverse. Ecco come varia la probabilità in base allo scenario o al contesto:
1 su 7,7 · 13%
Past-year attempt rate, YRBS 2023
1 su 17 · 6,0%
Past-year attempt rate, YRBS 2023
1 su 5,1 · 20%
Past-year attempt rate, YRBS 2023
1 su 3,9 · 26%
Past-year attempt rate, YRBS 2023
1 su 10 · 10%
Past-year attempt rate, YRBS 2023; down from 14% in 2021
1 su 17 · 6,0%
Past-year attempt rate, YRBS 2023
La lunghezza e la tonalità della barra ordinano questi scenari tra loro, non rispetto ad altri rischi. Le probabilità esatte sono indicate accanto a ciascuno.
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Decisioni che questo rischio orienta
Scelte che dipendono da questo rischio: come si soppesa il compromesso.
Iniziare a fumare da adolescente
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L'azione prevale
Rimpianto per l'azione 36.0× maggiore
Scegli lo sfidante
If you or someone you know is in crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988, available 24/7. For LGBTQ+ youth, The Trevor Project offers dedicated support at 1-866-488-7386 or by texting START to 678-678.
About one in ten US high school students reported attempting suicide in the past year, according to the CDC’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. That is not a typo, and it is not a fringe estimate from an advocacy group. It comes from the largest, longest-running, federally administered survey of adolescent health risk behaviors in the country — roughly 20,000 students, anonymous questionnaires, probability sampling, conducted biennially since 1991.
The number shocks most adults, which is itself informative. Parents, teachers, and policymakers tend to anchor on suicide deaths among teenagers (about 7 per 100,000 per year for ages 15-19), which are tragic but comparatively rare. Past-year attempts, at roughly 9,500 per 100,000 high school students, are orders of magnitude more common than deaths in this age group. The gap between the death rate that dominates the news cycle and the attempt rate that dominates the epidemiology is one of the largest perception gaps on this site.
What the surveys actually measure
The YRBS asks a simple question: “During the past 12 months, how many times did you actually attempt suicide?” In 2023, 9.5% of students answered at least once. A separate question about serious consideration (ideation) returned 20.4%, and 15.7% said they had made a plan. The cascade — ideation to plan to attempt — narrows at each step, but the funnel is wide at the top.
SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a household-interview survey covering ages 12-17, reports a lower past-year attempt rate of 3.3% for 2023. The discrepancy is not a contradiction. The NSDUH includes younger adolescents (12-13) with lower attempt rates, uses a non-anonymous household interview format that suppresses disclosure of sensitive behaviors, and defines its population differently. Both are nationally representative. The YRBS figure is the better-established benchmark for high school students specifically; the NSDUH is more useful for the broader 12-17 age window.
The demographic gradients are steep
Female high school students attempt at roughly twice the rate of males (13% vs 6%), a ratio that has been stable across multiple YRBS cycles. The gender paradox of suicide — girls attempt more often, boys die more often — holds in adolescence as clearly as in adulthood, driven largely by differences in method lethality.
LGBQ+ students reported a 19.7% past-year attempt rate in the 2023 YRBS, compared to 6% for heterosexual students — more than a threefold disparity. Transgender students reported 25.9%. These numbers are not artifacts of small samples or methodological quirks; the YRBS added sexual identity questions in 2015 and the disparity has been consistent across every cycle since. The Trevor Project’s 2024 survey of over 18,000 LGBTQ+ youth aged 13-24 corroborates the pattern, reporting a 12% past-year attempt rate (lower than the YRBS figure partly because it includes young adults 18-24 with lower rates).
Black students showed a past-year attempt rate of 10% in 2023, down from 14% in 2021 — a meaningful decline, though still elevated relative to the 2013 baseline. The trajectory for Black youth has been one of the most concerning in the data, with rates rising sharply from 2013 through 2021 before the partial reversal.
What “attempt” means (and does not mean)
The YRBS does not verify self-reported attempts against emergency department records or clinical assessments. Some fraction of what students report as a suicide attempt would be classified by clinicians as non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) — the intent matters for clinical taxonomy, but both behaviors indicate serious distress. Conversely, some genuine attempts go unreported even on anonymous surveys. The net direction of these biases is debated, but the order of magnitude — roughly one in ten — is not seriously contested by the research community.
The cumulative picture
No US survey follows the same adolescents year over year to track how many ever attempt across the full teenage window. Compounding the NSDUH’s 3.3% annual rate across six years (ages 12-17) with an independence assumption yields roughly 18%, but many attempters are repeat attempters, and the independence assumption overstates cumulative incidence. The true “at least once during adolescence” figure is likely in the range of 12-25%, with 18% as a reasonable central estimate. That means something like one in six American teenagers will attempt suicide at least once before turning 18.
The comparison to completed suicide is instructive. The lifetime probability of dying by suicide for a US adult is about 1 in 121 (0.83%). The probability of attempting suicide during adolescence alone — a six-year window, not a full lifetime — is roughly 20 times higher. Attempts are the iceberg; deaths are the tip.
Trend context
The 2023 YRBS showed modest improvement from the 2021 survey on several indicators. Serious consideration of suicide fell from 22% to 20%, and the overall attempt rate was little changed, at 9.5% in 2023. For some subgroups — Black students, female students — specific indicators declined. These are genuinely encouraging movements, but they follow a decade of deterioration (the 2013 attempt rate was about 8%) and the current levels remain historically high. Whether the 2021-2023 stabilization represents a peak or a plateau is not yet clear.
Curiosità correlate
1 adolescente su 6 tentera il suicidio. Le probabilita di morire in una sparatoria di massa sono 1 su 110.000. Le scuole fanno esercitazioni di lockdown per la minaccia rara e perdono quella comune seduta in classe.
Circa 1 adolescente USA su 6 tentera il suicidio. Le probabilita nella vita di un civile di morire in un attentato sono ~1 su 3.500.000. Uno ottiene budget di sicurezza; l'altro ottiene linee telefoniche sottofinanziate.
Registro delle fonti
Ogni numero qui sotto è ciò che ciascuna fonte ha riportato, con la citazione testuale su cui ci siamo basati e come siamo arrivati alla nostra cifra. Clicca su qualsiasi link per verificare direttamente.
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[1] CDC MMWR Supplements (Ivey-Stephenson et al.) — Mental Health and Suicide Risk Among High School Students and Protective Factors — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2023
Mental Health and Suicide Risk Among High School Students and Protective Factors — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2023- Statistica
9.5% of US high school students attempted suicide in the past 12 months; 20.4% seriously considered it; 15.7% made a plan; female 13% vs male 6% attempted; LGBQ+ students 19.7% vs heterosexual 6% attempted; transgender students 25.9%- Estratto
“"Overall, 20.4% seriously considered attempting suicide, and 9.5% had attempted suicide... The prevalence of mental health and suicide risk indicators was high across all demographic groups; however, prevalence was highest among female students and LGBQ+ students." ”
- Dati originali da
- 2024-10-24
- Consultato
- 2026-04-19 · copia archiviata
- Calcolo
- The YRBS is a nationally representative, school-based, anonymous survey of US high school students conducted biennially by the CDC since 1991. In 2023, the survey captured approximately 20,000 students across grades 9-12. The 9.5% past-year attempt prevalence is the primary native rate. By sex: female students 13%, male students 6% (approximate 2:1 ratio). By sexual identity: LGBQ+ students 19.7%, heterosexual students 6% (approximate 3.3:1 ratio). Transgender students 25.9%, cisgender females 11.0%, cisgender males 5.3%. By race: Black students 10% (down from 14% in 2021), White students approximately 8%, Hispanic students approximately 10%. These are annual period-prevalence figures, not cumulative lifetime figures.
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[2] Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) — 2023 NSDUH Population Statistics Report: Adolescent Major Depressive Episodes and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors
2023 NSDUH Population Statistics Report: Adolescent Major Depressive Episodes and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors- Statistica
3.2 million adolescents aged 12-17 (12.3%) had serious thoughts of suicide in 2023; 856,000 (3.3%) attempted suicide; 4.5 million (18.1%) had a major depressive episode- Estratto
“"In 2023, among adolescents aged 12 to 17, 3.2 million (or 12.3 percent) had serious thoughts of suicide... nearly half of those who had serious thoughts of suicide made suicide plans or attempted suicide, or both." ”
- Dati originali da
- 2024-08-01
- Consultato
- 2026-04-19 · copia archiviata
- Calcolo
- NSDUH is a household-interview survey of approximately 70,000 persons aged 12+, conducted annually by SAMHSA. The 3.3% past-year attempt rate among 12-17 year-olds is lower than the YRBS 9.5% for several reasons: (1) NSDUH includes younger adolescents (12-13) with lower rates; (2) household interview format introduces social desirability bias (teen answers with parent potentially nearby); (3) the YRBS school-based anonymous questionnaire elicits higher self-report of sensitive behaviors. Both surveys are nationally representative. The NSDUH figure is used for the cumulative adolescence estimate because it covers the full 12-17 age range rather than the 14-18 high-school window.
- Indipendenza
- Fully independent of the YRBS. Different sampling frame (household vs school), different survey instrument, different administering agency (SAMHSA vs CDC).
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[3] Pediatrics (American Academy of Pediatrics, Shain et al. 2024) — Suicide and Suicide Risk in Adolescents
Suicide and Suicide Risk in Adolescents- Statistica
AAP clinical report summarising epidemiology, risk factors, and screening recommendations for adolescent suicidality; notes suicide as the second leading cause of death for 10- to 24-year-olds in the US and recommends pediatricians screen patients 12 years and older for suicide risk at least annually- Estratto
“"Suicide is the second leading cause of death for 10- to 24-year-olds in the United States and is a global public health issue." ”
- Dati originali da
- 2024-01-01
- Consultato
- 2026-04-19 · copia archiviata
- Calcolo
- The AAP clinical report provides the clinical and epidemiological framing for adolescent suicidality, opening with the fact that suicide is the second leading cause of death for 10- to 24-year-olds in the US. It corroborates the YRBS and NSDUH figures and recommends annual suicide-risk screening for patients 12 and older. The AAP report does not provide independent incidence data but synthesises the CDC and SAMHSA sources with clinical literature on risk factors, screening tools (PHQ-A, Columbia Protocol), and lethal means restriction. The body text compares the CDC YRBS past-year attempt prevalence (~9,500 per 100,000 high school students) against the CDC age-15-19 suicide death rate (~7 per 100,000), a comparison of a self-reported past-year attempt rate against an annual death rate rather than a clinical attempt-to-death case ratio.
- Indipendenza
- Review article synthesising CDC and SAMHSA data with clinical literature. Not an independent data source for the headline prevalence figure.
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[4] The Trevor Project — 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People
2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People- Statistica
12% of LGBTQ+ youth aged 13-24 attempted suicide in the past year (2024 survey of 18,000+ respondents); 46% of transgender and nonbinary youth seriously considered attempting suicide- Estratto
“"More than one in ten LGBTQ+ young people attempted suicide in the past year." ”
- Dati originali da
- 2024-04-01
- Consultato
- 2026-04-19 · copia archiviata
- Calcolo
- The Trevor Project survey is a large convenience sample (not probability-based) of LGBTQ+ youth aged 13-24 recruited online. The 12% past-year attempt rate is broadly consistent with the YRBS finding that 19.7% of LGBQ+ high school students attempted suicide — the Trevor Project figure is lower because it includes older youth (18-24) with lower attempt rates. The convenience-sample design may introduce selection bias in either direction. This source is included to document the LGBTQ+ disparity with the largest available sample, not as an independent prevalence estimate. The 50-state report released in March 2025 provided state-level breakdowns of these figures.
- Indipendenza
- Fully independent of CDC YRBS and SAMHSA NSDUH. Different survey instrument, different sampling frame (online convenience sample of LGBTQ+ youth vs probability-based surveys of all youth).