14 DAY TRIAL // If your teen offspring cannot read very well you should take care he learns it until it is not too late, as new surveys show that bad adolescent readers are as much as 3 times more likely to have a suicidal attempt. According to a recent study carried out by a team of researchers at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Centre, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, suicidal rates among teenagers are considerably higher in those who have poor reading skills and are not able to read a text appropriately.
Stephanie Sergent Daniel, study author of the report published in the Journal of Learning Disabilities, cautioned that bad readers are also 6 times more likely to drop out of school than their counterparts who can deal with reading a text. This is why parents and teachers should strive harder in helping teenagers develop reading skills: "In our study, poor readers were three times more likely than typical readers to consider or attempt suicide, and six times more likely to drop out of school. Educators and parents should be aware of the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviour among adolescents with reading problems."
The study was conducted on 188 15-year-old students from 6 public high schools. Researchers assessed subjects' reading skills at the beginning of the study and then throughout a 3,3 years follow-up period. Overall results showed that students who were categorized as poor readers when the study began and did not improve their reading skills during the 3 year period had a 3 times higher risk of experiencing suicidal thoughts and attempts and also were 6 times more likely to want to drop out of school.
Lead researcher of the study Frank Wood admitted that psychiatric disorders may also play a key-role in teens' suicidal attempts, but the findings of the current research focused only on how poor reading skills trigger depression in adolescents who cannot read a text appropriately: "Significant reading difficulties were independent of, or over and beyond, the risk from psychiatric conditions. Regardless of whether they have independent psychiatric disorders, these students begin to get depressed or suicidal in higher numbers than typical readers."