Does Good Academic Performance Prevent Suicide? Evidence from the Accountability Laws

Presenter: Ning Zhang, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

Abstract

Rationale: Suicide has become the third leading cause of death among American youths Many social factors may be associated with these behaviors, academic performance that causes academic pressure, is one such factor. However, the causal impact of these factors is difficult to identify because adolescents who have mental disorders may have poorer academic achievement than those who do not.
Objective: The objective of this paper is to investigate whether good academic performance prevents suicides. It has been shown that students’ scores improved as the consequences of the accountability laws introduced by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act 2001. Academic performance can affect suicidal behaviors in two ways. On one hand, the improvement of scores at school could ease the mental pressures and hence, decrease the risk for mental disorders and for suicides. On the other hand, being under pressure to succeed could increases the risk for mental disorders. Which mechanism dominates is uncertain.

Method: The study is based on the data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) (1999 -2005). Suicidal behaviors are reported as attempts to commit suicide and any suicide committed during the previous 12 months. Two analyses are conducted: one estimates the total effect of the implementation of accountability laws on suicide attempts and the suicide. The second examines the differences in changes in suicidal behavior with the strictness of laws, measured by the number of law components in each state.

Preliminary Results: During these years, 14% of adolescents attempted to commit a suicide and 3% of them actually did. The preliminary results show that students in states which pioneered to adopt accountable system were 4 % more likely to have planned suicide compared to others. Among whites, laws increased the suicide plans by 7% while little effects on real suicide. For blacks, these laws predicted 10 percentage points increase in suicide plan. Even worse, the laws increased the real suicide by 4 percentage points. Moreover, results presented that on average, students living in states with more strict accountability laws were 1% more likely to report to have a suicide plan or actually commit such plan, though little effects were detected among whites. The laws increased the suicide rates among blacks by 7%.

Conclusions: The NCLB aimed to improve the educational achievement for students and ultimately, accumulation of their human capital. However, our research suggests that such progress comes with higher academic pressure and higher risk for mental disorders. The evidence from this study shows that although black students experienced a greater improvement in academic scores as a result of these laws, they also demonstrated greater improvement in in suicide behaviors. Overall, the better school performance was associated with higher suicide rate among blacks. The policy makers should carefully consider psychological pressure brought about by the accountability system.