Why are young Asian-Americans killing themselves? Group’s emotional battle against cultural and social pressure in America
- In the US, suicide was the top cause of death among Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders aged 15-24 in 2017
- The combination of heavy pressure to succeed and a conflicted cultural identity can increase the risk of depression
Katherine Tong recalls sitting in a church pew in 2013, listening to a eulogy from a father who had lost his son to suicide. She thought: “Thank God our family is okay”.
But six months later, her stepson, 17-year-old Evan Tong, would end his life the same way.
The family knew that Evan was depressed, but dismissed the possibility that he might resort to suicide, a subject that remains taboo in many Asian households.
Although suicide rates among young Asian people are lower than those for the overall US population, the number has grown significantly in the past decade. For Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) aged 20-24, the suicide rate increased from 7.4 per cent to 13.6 per cent between 2011 and 2018, according to data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Suicide was also the leading cause of death among AAPIs aged 15-24, according to CDC. Specifically, for those 20-24, suicide accounted for 33.1 per cent of AAPI deaths in 2017 – the highest of all ethnicities. By contrast, the number was 21 per cent among Caucasians in the same age group.
Jorge Wong, a clinical psychologist at Palo Alto University in California, called the statistics “alarming”.