The hit in the 11-14 demographic is rather concerning. It’s before the big wave of gaokao prep really hits (and thus precedes the job search stress), so it’s a really concerning demographic without a clear root cause.
I think you hit the nail right on the head, the unrelenting academic stress
But that’s not really hitting the 11-14 demographic that hard.
Kids talk. Stressed kids push their stress to whomever. It is tragic, but doesn’t seem shocking that the impact would be earlier. (I have zero insight into China.)
Yeah, but that’s the entire reason China splits off high school into age 15-18.
The USA is seeing similar problems https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html
Suicide is the second leading cause of deaths in US children age 10 - 14
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Oh my god that’s horrible and kind of funny even though it’s super fucked up.
“True enough, there are such things as laughless jokes, what Freud called gallows humor. There are real-life situations so hopeless that no relief is imaginable.
While we were being bombed in Dresden sitting in a cellar with our arms over our heads in case the ceiling fell, one soldier said as though he were a duchess in a mansion on a cold and rainy night, ‘I wonder what the poor people are doing tonight.’ Nobody laughed, but we were still all glad he said it. At least we were still alive! He proved it.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
Yeah making jokes about suicide like that isn’t acceptable.
I’ll join you to hell where we’re definitely gonna end up after this
I really should feel sorrier than I do for laughing out loud at this
If it jumped 10% annually since 2010 wouldn’t that make it 130% or am I bad at maths
That’s not how this kind of thing works, and it depends on where it starts. If it’s 1% of children attempting suicide, which would be a huge amount, a 10% increase is 1.1%, and then for the next year a 10% increase makes it 1.21%, and then 1.33%. This is why when something increases your risk of something by say, 50%, it might mean absolutely nothing if the initial odds are 1 in a billion. 1.5 in a billion isn’t really any more likely.
My neighbour was freaking out when she saw in the local newspaper that burglaries in our town had increased by 100%
I pointed out that we had 2 burglaries this year, compared to the 1 last year…
The increase itself doesn’t matter where it starts, 10% each year over 13 years will always be an increase of ~245%.
It also matters a lot to look at the relative change no matter the absolute amount, since it indicates a trend. Even if the chance for something terrible is 1 in a billion, a steady 10% increase every year should worry everyone, since there is a clear trend (and compounding increases get big faster than you’d expect).
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Lol. It’s 1.1^(2023-2010)
Nice rule of thumb: 7% increase per year means doubling in 10 years.
10% above its current rate.
So if 2% of children are killing themselves an increase of ten percent would be 2.2%.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
China has seen an increase in suicides among young people in recent years, prompting researchers to call for a special program to help them deal with academic pressure.
The increase is small in absolute numbers yet it contrasts with a decline of 5.3% annually in the 2010-2021 period among all age groups in the country, a drop the researchers said was due to a nationwide mental health program.
The researchers called on the government to prioritize developing programs targeting children and adolescents that adopt best practices from abroad and allow for the early identification of suicidal behavior.
Earlier this year, the apparent suicide of a boarding school student named Hu Xinyu gained widespread attention in China, both because the 15-year-old boy had expressed concern beforehand about his grades and how the police handled their investigation.
Also, many people took to Chinese social media Thursday to express sadness over the death of Hong Kong-born singer and songwriter Coco Lee.
The researchers at the Center for Disease Control & Prevention also warned that the widespread belief among parents and teachers that getting good scores trumps anything else risks obscuring mental health issues plaguing children.
The original article contains 402 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 54%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
It went from 0.2/100k to 0.8/100k. In aggregate, that’s 800 people? I wonder how much of that is due to improved reporting given the lapse of the one-child policy, though.
Suicides averaged over all age groups declined by 5% in the same period, so it can’t just be better reporting. Also that’s an aggregate increase of about 6000, not 800.
Better reporting of children in particular because of the lapse of the one-child policy? For a decent amount of time China had “ghost children” that weren’t reported to the government (though you’ll find no reports on this from Western media, it’s a pretty well-established truth in some Chinese circles).
Ah, that’s possible.
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Try leaving one next to a cliff
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Such as?
Please edit your comment to not include a racist dogwhistle
(It is CPC not CCP)
How is this racist?
You’re emphasizing the Chinese part by calling them the Chinese communist party as opposed to their actual name, which is the Communist party of China. Veiled “Oh scary foreigners”
This isn’t a right wing space where you will only be banned for overt racism.
I’m not OP but thanks for the explanation.
and when china needs its youth the most
This is where the number of babies born hasn’t risen significantly.
The suicide rate for people aged 10 to 24 increased by 56% between 2007 to 2017, according to new data from the CDC.
https://www.insider.com/cdc-teenage-gen-z-american-suicide-epidemic
and before you “b-but that’s whataboutism” me, is it not the real whataboutism to be worrying about the “disturbing” jump in youth suicide in China when America’s jump over a similar timespan is just past five times larger?
Significant suicide rates can be worrying in multiple places. I don’t see where anyone is making this a US vs China thing
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Please edit your comment to not include a racist dogwhistle
(It is CPC not CCP)
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Is it really that hard not to be using the language of racists? Like is this really a hill you need to be dying on?
That’s me, not the admins. Stop being racist when you (inaccurately) criticize China and your comments won’t be deleted. If you can’t help but be racist when you criticize China then you’ll keep getting them deleted.
The problem is there are always comments like these: https://lemm.ee/comment/4359032
Adding context is obviously necessary.
Okay but chill out a bit, dude.
It’s just a news article and it is worrying, even if the US is worse.
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It’s 10% per year since 2010, meaning over a 100% increase at a flat rate, and over a 240% increase if compounding the rate each year. Both far more concerning than 56%, especially given the younger age range.
I’m not sure whether people like him genuinely can’t read, or whether they deliberately spread fake news.
Eh it’s still a problem for China though
Suicide rates increasing anywhere is really bad news. I don’t think people’s assessment of why it’s increasing (academic pressure) is accurate, but the fact that it is increasing is extremely concerning everywhere.
Do you guys spend every single moment thinking about how bad the US and comparing everything to them?
You are correct, and the post article doesn’t even include real numbers just percentages with no data backing it up.
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Just because the USA sucks majorly ass doesnt mean other places doesnt suck too… but it might be a waste of time arguing with you since youre from lemmygrad.
Edit: words
Block and move on… That’s my strategy at least.
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Who the fuck cares about the US.
Over here in Germany we had an almost three time jump during and directly after lockdown, but it’s still overall a downwards trend. Maybe next time don’t compare your favourite pet country with other countries which are messing up? And don’t use the suffering of kids for cheap political quips?
