Completion requirements
View
11. Giftedness, Intensity & Risk of Suicide
11.1. Suicide Prevention
Suicide rates among ages 10-24 has skyrocketed over the past decade. Dr. Tracy Cross and his colleagues have recently opened the William & Mary Institute for Research on the Suicide of Gifted Students to examine this topic and find options for easy intervention.
Below is an excerpt from "In giftedness, is there more darkness?" by Marisa Spyker
“What worries me isn’t so much that the prevalence rates [of suicide] might be higher among gifted kids,” said Tracy Cross, citing the lack of data to make any such claim.”
His concern is that gifted individuals may be more successful in their attempts. Based on journals he has read from several gifted adolescents who died by suicide, he believes this population may be better at planning and carrying out their plans, leading to a higher rate of completion from attempts. He acknowledges, however, it is too early to know if this is true.
When darkness falls
Statistically, nearly 44,000 people die by suicide each year in the United States. Among people aged 15-34, it’s the second leading cause of death. But very little is known as to the level of intelligence or other creative talents of those who have died by suicide or made an attempt.
Disparities in the definition of gifted, the stigma surrounding suicide, and the fact that there are just a few champions researching the topic, make data notoriously scarce and difficult to collect. (According to Tracy and Jennifer Cross, the total number of school- and college-age gifted students represented in the studies is fewer than 640.)
Still, the data that has been collected offers hints as to what might make gifted students at risk for suicidal thoughts and tendencies. Perfectionism, or a self- or socially inflicted pressure to perform well, is a common characteristic among gifted students and has been found to correlate with suicide ideation in studies of psychiatric and university samples. There are also biological links (one study found a modest correlation between suicide ideation among gifted students and introversion, for example), however, Tracy Cross said he believes biology is often less of a factor than the context of the situation.
For full story, click here
Colorado Department of Education - Suicide Prevention resourcehttps://www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/ta_suicideprevention