A recent study conducted in the United States (US) reveals an increase in suicide rates in children coinciding with the start of in-person schooling post-pandemic.
The research titled, ‘In-Person Schooling and Youth Suicide: Evidence from School Calendars and Pandemic School Closures’, studies the reported suicide cases in relation to the time when in-person schooling resumed across the country, and revealed an 18% increase in suicide rates.
The study found that suicide rates among 12-to-18-year-olds are greatest during the school year and lowest during the summer months (June through August), and regions with schools opening in early August see an increase in teen suicides in August, whereas regions with schools opening in September do not see an increase in youth suicides until September. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the seasonal trend shifting substantially in 2020.
Suicide rates were revealed to have plummeted dramatically in March 2020, when the COVID-related lockdowns began, and remained low all through the summer months before climbing in the fall of 2020 when several schools resumed in-person education.
The researchers believe that bullying in school might be a contributing factor to the increased suicides. Using Google searches as a proxy for worry about bullying, researchers discovered that fully reopening schools were connected with a 52% rise in bullying questions, a 42% rise in cyberbullying queries, and a 93% increase in queries concerning school bullying.
