Increased risk of suicide when children reach the same age their parents were at the time of suicide

Previous research has shown that children of parents who die by suicide have an elevated risk of suicidal behavior. This study examines a particularly psychologically vulnerable period: when the bereaved child reaches the same age their parent was at the time of suicide.

Using Danish register data from the period 1980–2016, this study investigates whether the risk of suicidal behavior (suicide attempts or suicide) increases when bereaved children reach the age at which their parent died by suicide.

For those bereaved by parental suicide (n = 188), an increased risk of suicidal behavior was found during a two-year period around the age coincidence. No similar increase was observed for those bereaved by causes of death other than suicide.

Reaching the same age as a parent who died by suicide marks a particularly vulnerable phase of life. Time alone does not necessarily heal grief in a linear fashion. This indicates a specific point in time when support and preventive efforts should be intensified – even many years after the original loss.