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Youth Who Seriously Considered Suicide in the Past Year by Sexual Orientation, Grades 9-12, New Mexico,

Indicator Report Data View Options

Why Is This Important?

Suicide is a complex behavior with no single determining cause. Seriously considering suicide is a form of suicidal ideation. Suicidal ideation refers to thoughts of suicide or wanting to take one's own life. Suicidal ideation is a risk factor for suicide attempts as well as completed suicide.

The prevalence of students who seriously considered suicide was 2 1/2 times higher for those who identified as gay or lesbian (34.2%) and three times higher for those who identified as bisexual (42.7%) compared to straight students (13.9%).

Definition

Percentage of students grades 9-12 in a NM public school who reported that they seriously considered suicide at least once in past 12 months. The NM Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey (YRRS) is administered in odd years and is part of the national Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), coordinated and designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Each state, territorial, tribal, and large urban school district participating in YRBS employs a two-stage, cluster sample design to produce a representative sample of students in grades 9-12 in its jurisdiction. In the first sampling stage, in all except a few sites, schools are selected with probability proportional to school enrollment size. In the second sampling stage, intact classes of a required subject or intact classes during a required period (e.g., second period) are selected randomly. All students in sampled classes are eligible to participate. A weight is applied to each student record to adjust for student nonresponse and the distribution of students by grade, sex, and race/ethnicity in each jurisdiction.

Data Source

New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey, New Mexico Department of Health and Public Education Department.

How the Measure is Calculated

Numerator:Number of students who answered, "Yes", to the question, "During the past 12 months, did you ever seriously consider attempting suicide?"
Denominator:Total number of respondents who answered the question, "During the past 12 months, did you ever seriously consider attempting suicide?"

Health Topic Pages Related to: Mental Health - Youth Seriously Considered Suicide

Community Health Resources and Links





Medical literature can be queried at the PubMed website.

Indicator Data Last Updated On 03/05/2021, Published on 05/09/2022
Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey, Survey Section, Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health and Coordinated School Health & Wellness Bureau, NM Public Education Department. Contact NMDOH, 1190 S. Saint Francis Drive, P.O. Box 26110, Santa Fe, NM, 87502. Telephone: (505) 476-1779.