By Steve Wang

Suicide rates amongst teenagers have been steadily increasing over the past few years (3) Could this be because adults are giving teenagers too much pressure or judging them too harshly? I think that this might be part of the reason but not the only reason. To test this, two research groups went out to ask how the general public measures the worth of an individual or a student.

For students this is the order of importance when measuring worth after scores have been moved from behaviour to wealth: (SEE Table 1 below) This is the results for individuals: (SEE Table 2 below)

There are also many similar points when comparing the data for individuals and students. The money and finance section and the value and ethics section are both ranked quite highly. Furthermore, actions and ability are both ranked quite lowly on the list. From that we can conclude that students and individuals are judged quite similarly. Could judging students to adult standards be causing this increasing rate of suicide? Judging students to adult standards might cause students to feel, hopelessness, worthlessness, distress, irritability, or agitation. According to kindshealth.org(1), all those feelings can contribute to a teenager to think about suicide. I have seen these emotions being expressed by students. For example, I have seen classmates who were easily irritable or easily agitated which eventually might lead to suicide. However, these are likely not the only things that lead teenagers to consider suicide but they might be a contributing factor.

This research has showed us how people view normal individuals compared to students. From the data, it can be seen that they are judged quite similarly. So, it might be necessary to change the way they are judged because if we do not adept, the trend of increasing sucicidal rates of students will increase. Nothing will change if nothing as done. By doing nothing, society is causing the death of many young students with great potential.

1. https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/suicide.html 3. https://jedfoundation.org/mental-health-and-suicide-statistics/