Clustering of Teenage Suicides After Television News Stories About Suicide (From Adolescent Suicide, P 239-243, 1988, Robert W. Cole, Jr., ed. -- See NCJ-117025)

• NCJ Number: 117045
• Author(s): D P Phillips; L Carstensen
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 5 pages
• Sale Source: Phi Delta Kappa
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Reprinted from New England Journal of Medicine, V 315, No. 11 September 11, 1986

Annotation

An analysis of the relationship between 38 nationally televised news or feature stories about suicide and the fluctuation of the rate of adolescent suicide in the United States before and after these stories indicate that television stories about suicide may trigger suicide.

Abstract

The stories appeared between 1973 and 1979. The 1,666 teenage suicides that occurred from 0 to 7 days after these broadcasts was significantly greater than the 1,555 expected. In addition, the more networks that carried a story about suicide, the greater was the subsequent increase in suicide. These findings persisted after correction for the effects of the day of the week, the month, holidays, and yearly trends. Teenage suicides also increased more than adult suicides after stories about suicide. Suicides increased as much after general-information or feature stories about suicide as after news stories about a particular suicide. Six alternative explanations of these findings were assessed, including the possibility that the results were due to misclassification or were statistical artifacts. Findings indicated that the best available explanation is that television stories about suicide trigger additional suicides, perhaps because of imitation. Table and 28 references.