Overweight and Suicidal Behaviors Among Adolescents: Correlation or Causation?
Year: 2007
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Suicide is the third leading cause of death for adolescents. The suicide rate for individuals 15-19 years of age in 2003, while having recently declined, still remains more than twice that in 1960. At the same time, the prevalence of being overweight has also steadily risen among adolescents, and has tripled since 1960. This study utilizes data from the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System (1991-2003) to explore the causal relationship between overweight status and the perception of overweight on suicide ideation and attempts. Studies have shown a high degree of correlation between overweight, depressive disorders, and suicidal behaviors. This study analyzes these indicators in conjunction with individuals' perception of their weight. The empirical methodology is based on bivariate probit models, propensity score matching, and sample stratification, along with robustness checks, to gauge whether the link between overweight indicators and suicide is causal or whether it is driven by unobserved selection. Results indicate that body dissatisfaction, as measured by the perception of overweight, has a strong causal impact on all suicidal behaviors for girls. It raises the risk of suicide ideation by 6.1 percent, suicide attempt by 3.6 percent, and a serious suicide attempt by 0.5 percent. For males, the association is mostly driven by nonrandom selection, though there is a small positive effect on ideation. Conditional on overweight perception, actual weight does not have an independent effect on suicidal behaviors. Policies aimed at reducing the prevalence of overweight among adolescents will further reduce suicidal behaviors by limiting overweight perception, especially among girls. However, the independent role of perception also highlights the importance of educating youths and fostering healthy attitudes regarding body image. Conservative estimates indicate that the risk of higher female suicides adds about $280 - $350 million to the costs of adolescent overweight. In addition, decreasing the prevalence of being very overweight among girls, consistent with the Healthy People 2010 objectives, would reduce the number of suicide attempts by between 12,000 and 16,000.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Authors: Dhaval Dave, Inas Rashad
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2257343761