As with most years that follow news coverage of the myth that suicide rates peak during the holidays, last year’s analysis found more newspaper articles supporting the myth that suicide rates increase during the holidays. It exposed it more than the season.
Over the past 25 years, we’ve been studying this phenomenon, and in just over a third of the years (nine years, or 36%), we’ve found more debunking the myth than supporting it. The misconception that people are more likely to commit suicide around the holidays has remained surprisingly persistent, despite years of debunking by mental health researchers, journalists and others.
Last year, a search of media articles during the 2023-24 holiday season found 26 newspaper articles linking the holiday to suicide, with 15 (58%) endorsing the myth and 11 (42%) debunking it. .
“For more than a generation, we have been analyzing how the news media reports the myth that suicide rates increase during the holiday season,” he said. Dan RomerDirector of Research Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) University of Pennsylvania. “The persistence of this myth suggests that myths that capture the public imagination are difficult to undo. “Supporting myths is useless and can have a contagious effect on vulnerable people who experience holiday crises and contemplate suicide,” he said.
The news media is not the only source of common misinformation. In a nationally representative survey we conducted in 2023, four out of five adults incorrectly chose December as the “time of the year with the highest number of suicides” compared to other months, even though other months were offered as potential choices. I did it. Suicide rates are generally much higher.
Linking the Holidays to Suicide
Last year, some newspaper articles supporting the myth were published in relatively small local publications. Some cited misguided beliefs from well-intentioned community authorities. All of this promoted a false myth.
- A Dec. 8, 2023, Denver Post article about four murder-suicides in two weeks quoted a local social services official as saying, “The ongoing holiday season may be one of the reasons.”
- A columnist for the Advertiser-Gleam in Guntersville, Alabama, wrote on Nov. 28, 2023, about taking an annual trip to cut down a Christmas tree. The columnist wrote: “Statistics show that the number of suicides increases during the holiday season. It’s easy to see why. Every year we celebrate another year passing and us becoming a year older. Every year brings losses of some things we loved and new additions we have come to love…
- The Minot Air Force Base (ND) newspaper Northern Sentry published an article in Air & Space Forces Magazine stating that the air force base was investigating the deaths of three airmen in a month. A Dec. 1, 2023 article quoted a military spouse as telling the Minot Daily News, “The holidays are a very vulnerable time for people, and that’s usually where the suicide rates are highest.”
Our media analysis also uncovered examples of stories debunking myths. Among these:
- “These tips will help you get through the holiday blues,” the weekly New Pittsburgh Courier quoted a mental health expert at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in a Dec. 21, 2023 article. Unfortunately, the myth that suicide rates increase during the winter holidays continues because studies show otherwise… “People are dying by suicide.” “In her view, highlighting these false risks can be harmful, potentially impacting on those who are struggling and making them appear more prevalent.”
- Dr. Barton Goldsmith’s column in the Grand Island (Neb.) Independent, Dec. 9, 2023, begins as follows: “There has been a long-held belief that suicide rates increase during the holiday season. According to the Mayo Clinic, this is completely false. The fact is that rates of depression and stress are increasing. If Santa is giving you the holiday blues, here are 10 sure-fire tools to help you deal with them.”
“As you can see from these two stories, holiday depression is a real phenomenon that may require attention for loved ones who may be grieving this time of year,” Romer said. “People can feel sad during the holidays for a variety of reasons. There is no need to give people the false impression that others are dying by suicide. Because it can actually be contagious.”
As we noted in our annual press release about this study: National Recommendations for Reporting Suicide Advise journalists not to promote information that could increase transmission, such as reporting on epidemics or seasonal increases. This is especially true if the claim has no basis in fact. Recommendations developed by journalism, mental health, public health, and suicide prevention groups and the Annenberg Center for Public Policy state that reporters should refer to credible sources that: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
Journalists who help dispel misconceptions about holiday suicides may also be providing valuable resources to readers who know or know someone who is potentially at risk. Suicide Prevention Resource Center, National Institute of Mental Healthand the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or 3HSA.
Seasonality of Suicide Rates
According to CDC data, the months with the lowest average daily suicide rates are typically the fall and winter months: November, December and January.
The average daily suicide rate was lowest at 12 in December 2023, the last year for which CDC data is available.Day November was the 11th of those months.Day. January has 5 daysDay. The month with the highest rate was August (1castle) and July (2nd).
The seasonal pattern of suicide rates is also consistent in Australia. Last year, Romer analyzed the average daily suicide rate in Australia over 12 years. He found that Australia’s winter suicide rate was just as low as in the United States. Because Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, the month with the lowest average daily suicide rate was June, the beginning of winter.
Presenting the Australian data last year, Romer said: “This helps explain the low suicide rates we see here in December. This is mainly due to the onset of winter. Psychologically, because American winters are short and depressing, we tend to associate them with suicide. But that doesn’t happen in reality.”
Not enough people know about 988.
A major government initiative to help vulnerable people began in July 2022 when the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline was renamed the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and 988 was implemented as a three-digit national telephone number. Annenberg Center for Public Policy research shows that familiarity with the 988 number is slowly increasing and too few people still know it.
National representative panel as of September 2024 inspectionOnly 15% of American adults are aware of the suicide lifeline. This is an increase from 11% in August 2023. These are people who knew there was a suicide lifeline number and answered 988 in an open-ended format. .
“The help found on the 988 helpline can only save lives if those in need and their loved ones and friends know the number.” Kathleen Hall JamisonAnnenberg, director of the Public Policy Center, said this when the findings were released last month: “If 988 were as easily remembered as 911, the whole nation would have reason to celebrate.”
How we conducted this media research
News and feature articles linking suicide and holidays were identified through searches of the LexisNexis and NewsBank databases combining the term “suicide” with words such as “holiday,” “Christmas,” and “New Year.” “Growth” in NewsBank from November 15, 2023 to January 31, 2024. Researchers should determine whether the article supports the link, debunks it, or makes a casual mention of it. Stories that were accidentally mentioned have been deleted. Only domestic suicides were counted.
APPC’s Sam Fox oversaw the coding of the story, working with Lauren Hawkins. Coding was performed by Penn students Kendall Allen, Nicholas Bausenwein, Ginger Fontenot, Sienna Horvath, Nia Peterson, and Dylan Walker in APPC’s Annenberg Institute for Health and Risk Communication. Shawn Patterson created the data figures.
that Annenberg Public Policy Center Established in 1993 to educate the public and policymakers about the role of communications in increasing public understanding of political, scientific, and health issues at the local, state, and federal levels.
