Suicide in Texas: a cohort analysis of trends in suicide rates, 1945-1980.

Recent clusters of teenage suicides in Texas suburban communities have focused national attention on the rise in teenage suicidal behavior. This study sought to clarify the teenage suicide phenomenon by using a cohort method of data analysis. Beginning with suicide rates for white males aged 15-19 in 1945, suicide rates were calculated and plotted for each 5-year age cohort entering the late teenage years, when suicide risk factors dramatically increase. Our analysis of these cohort patterns confirmed the ever-rising risk factor associated with the ages of 15-19. This trend is consistent with many studies suggesting that teenage suicide is a function of socioeconomic and psychological factors operating across community and national boundaries. In addition, our study revealed that as white males 15-19 years of age in 1945 aged, their suicide rates also increased, confirming earlier findings that the suicide risk factor increases with age. In fact, Texas data for 1980 revealed that older persons, not teenagers, had the highest suicide rates-a finding that confirms other studies' results. Finally, Texas cohort patterns for suicide revealed the recent curvilinearity tendencies of older adult male suicide rates. By 1980 Texas data revealed a bimodal distribution of high suicide risk, with white males in their late 20s and ages 55 and over having the highest rates.