Youth Suicide Attempts Highest Among Latino Girls

Life is Precious, a nonprofit suicide prevention program for Hispanic teens, met with elected officials and concerned families in front of City Hall Wednesday to raise awareness of what appears to be a growing problem.

Jacqueline Rios cries as she recalls how the nonprofit suicide prevention program for Hispanic teens saved her life. Council member Julissa Ferreras is standing to Rios's left, and Beatriz Coronel, the suicide prevention program coordinator, stands on her right on the New York City Hall steps on June 20. Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times

NEW YORK—Life is Precious, a nonprofit suicide prevention program for Hispanic teens, met with elected officials and concerned families in front of City Hall Wednesday to raise awareness of what appears to be a growing problem.

According to the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey released June 8 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in five Latino high-school girls nationwide has seriously considered suicide.

Beatriz Coronel, a program coordinator of Life is Precious, said she is familiar with the issue because her Ecuadorian mother attempted suicide when she was a teen.

“When they move to America, Latinas are isolated in many different ways,” Coronel said.

With a lack of communication, mental health resources, and culture shock, the problems young Latinas face today are the same as what women like her mother faced in past generations, Coronel said.

The number of females in grades 9 through 12 who have seriously considered suicide in the United States has risen 1.9 percent in the past two years, reaching a total of 19.3 percent in 2011—almost one in five female Latino students.

Latino females in the United States had the highest reported rates, with 21 percent having seriously considered suicide, according to CDC.

Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras said that some Latino households, lacking resources, put children as “front and center” to face serious issues—such as eviction— that would otherwise be shielded from children. The overwhelming responsibilities for young Latinos are contributing to higher rates of suicide attempts, she said.

Nationwide, 7.8 percent of Latino students had attempted suicide at least once in the 12 months before the survey. The attempted suicide rate was higher for females, at 9.8 percent, versus males, at 5.8 percent. Of Latino females, 13.5 percent had attempted suicide in the 12 months leading up to last year’s survey.

Councilwoman Ferreras said she was disturbed by the statistics because “these girls are our next doctors, our next council members. These ... suicides affect a whole community.”