Parental Suicide Linked to Higher Suicide Risk for Children

Key points

Children internalize feelings of shame or self-blame in the wake of a parent who chose to die by suicide.

Children who have lost a parent to suicide are three times more likely to die by suicide.

This association may not only be because of trauma, but by hereditary and environmental factors.

According to the World Health Organization , more than 720,000 people die by suicide each year, and it remains the third leading cause of death for 15- to 29-year-olds. Many children are left to grieve the loss of a parent to suicide, a painful experience that often leads to mental health struggles such as depression , anxiety , and even thoughts of suicide themselves.

There is a 3.8 percent lifetime prevalence of suicide exposure within a family, which means that about 1 in 25