Girls, Social Media, and Suicide

New research, reported in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, is telling us that as teens use of social media has grown over the last ten years, so too has the suicide rate among young people. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among those ages ten to thirty-four. Researchers found that while social media use had little effect on the suicidality risk for boys, there was a tipping point for girls. Girls who used social media for at least two to three hours a day at the beginning of the ten year study, back when they were about thirteen years old, had a higher clinical risk for suicide as they moved into emerging adulthood. It is believed that our girls are more susceptible to the negative effects of social media. Parents, all of our kids need parents and adult friends who love them simply because they are God’s divine image bearers. In the context of relationships marked by spending time together, we can not only communicate the life-giving truths of the Gospel, but build their resiliency.