Minnesota Student Survey Results

Self-Inflicted Injury, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicidal Behavior

Participants were asked: During the last 12 months, how many times did you do something to purposely hurt or injure yourself without wanting to die, such as cutting, burning, or bruising yourself on purpose? 5th grade students were not asked questions relating to self-harm or suicide.

Jackson County Central self-harm

The chart below displays the self-harm percentages for Jackson 8th, 9th, and 11th graders who responded to the survey, by gender. Female students in all three grade levels showed higher percentages of self-harm than male students in the same grade level. 40% of female 8th grade students reported self-harming at least one time in the last year, 10% of which self-harmed 10 times or more. 12% of male 8th grade students reported self-harming at least once, and 6% reported self-harming 10 or more times. 38% of female 9th grade students self-harmed once or more, many of which included self-harm rates at higher frequencies. Nearly 1 out of 5 ninth grade girls self-harmed 10 times or more during the last year, with 14% self-harming 20 times or more. 9th grade also represented the highest rates for male self-harm of the three grade levels, with 1 of 4 male ninth graders (26%) reporting self-harming once or more. Half of male 9th graders who self-harmed reported doing so 1-2 times, while the other half reported self-harming 3-20 times. The percentage of students who have self-harmed is lowest among 11th graders for both genders. 15% of male 11th graders reported self-harming once or more, compared to 28% of female 11th grade students.

Windom County self-harm

The chart below displays the self-harm percentages for Windom 8th, 9th, and 11th graders who responded to the survey, split by gender. Female students in 8th and 9th grade showed higher percentages of self-harm than their male counterparts. All of the male 9th grade students who were surveyed indicated that they had not self-harmed in the last year, and just 5% of male 8th grade students reported self-harming 1 or 2 times. The percentage of female 8th, 9th and 11th graders who reported self-harming at least once was 36%, 29% and 18% respectively. For 11th graders, the percentage of male students who self-harmed was higher (21%) than the percentage of female students who self-harmed (18%). However, female students who self-harmed displayed higher instances of self-harm of (6-20 times), while male students reported frequencies of of 1-9 times. A small percentage of female students in each grade level reported self-harming more than 20 times (8th grade: 4%; 9th grade: 6%; 11th grade: 6%).

Mountain Lake self-harm

The chart on the left displays self-harm percentages for 8th, 9th, and 11th grade students at Mountain Lake public schools. Data was not able to be split by gender due to small sample sizes. 8th grade students showed the highest rates of self-harm, 32% of which reported self-harming at least once in the last year. 15% of 9th graders and 23% of 11th graders reported self-harming in the last year. 3% of both 8th and 11th grade students reported harming 20 or more times.

Participants were asked: Have you ever seriously considered attempting suicide? (Mark all that apply). Responses are shown by county, grade, and gender. Female students indicated higher percentages of suicidal ideation during the last year and more than a year ago for all grade levels at both Windom and Jackson.

Around 90% of 8th grade boys indicated that they had never considered attempting suicide, compared to around 60% of 8th grade girls. A small percentage of 8th grade boys had considered attempting suicide during the last year (3% Windom; 6% Jackson) or more than a year ago (5% Windom, 3% Jackson). Around 30% of 8th grade girls considered attempting suicide in the last year, and 23% of Jackson 8th grade girls considered suicide more than a year ago.

Windom 8th grade suicidal ideation

Jackson 8th grade suicidal ideation

Ninth grade girls at Jackson showed the highest rates of suicidal ideation, with nearly half (46%) indicating that they had considered attempting suicide at some point (38% during the last year; 24% more than a year ago). About a tenth of 9th grade boys at Windom indicated that they considered attempting suicide more than a year ago, the remainder of which did not indicate suicidal ideation recently or in the past. Four out of five 9th grade boys at Jackson indicated that they have never considered suicide. 16% of boys at jackson considered committing suicide during the last year, compared to 38% of girls. 8% of 9th grade boys at Jackson indicated that they considered attempting suicide more than a year ago, and the rate for girls was three times as high (24%). About 1 in 5 9th grade girls at Windom considered attempting suicide during the last year (23%) or more than a year ago (20%).

Windom 9th grade suicidal ideation

Jackson 9th grade suicidal ideation

On average, 87% of 11th grade boys indicated that they have never considered attempting suicide, compared to 67% of 11th grade girls. 1 of 4 (25%) of 11th grade girls at Jackson considered suicide within the last year, compared to 4% of boys. 28% of 11th grade girls and 11% of 11th grade boys at Jackson considered suicide more than a year ago. 22% of 11th grade girls at Windom considered suicide within the last year, compared to 12% of 11th grade boys. Nearly 1 in 5 (19%) of 11th grade girls at Windom considered attempting suicide over a year ago, compared to 3% of 11th grade boys at Windom.

Windom 11th grade suicidal ideation

Jackson 11th grade suicidal ideation

Mountain Lake suicidal ideation

Mountain Lake suicide attempts

Have you ever attempted suicide? (Mark all that apply)

Jackson 8th-11th grade suicidal attempts

Windom 8th-11th grade suicidal attempts

Mental Health

The percentage of students that indicated they had a long-term mental health, behavioral, or emotional problem by grade and gender for Windom Public School District and Jackson County Central School District is shown below. Jackson showed higher percentages of mental health problems than Windom did for each of the six categories. Female students at Windom and Jackson showed higher rates of mental health disorders than male students across the board.

Windom percent of students with a long-term mental health problem

Female students at all three grade levels showed higher rates of mental health diagnoses than male students did. There was an increase in observed mental health diagnoses for male 11th graders, as compared to 8th and 8th grade levels.

Jackson percent of students with a long-term mental health problem

64% of female 11th graders indicated that they have a long-term mental health, behavioral, or emotional problem. The rate of mental health diagnoses appears to increase for female students by grade, while the rate for male students does not increase much by grade level.

Students with a long-term mental health problem at Mountain Lake

29% of 8th grade students at Mountain Lake indicated that they had a long-term mental health problem, compared to 14% of 9th graders and 16% of 11th graders. Gendered comparisons are not available for this district due to small sample sizes.

The percentage of students treated for a mental health, emotional, or behavioral problem by gender, grade, and county is shown below. Note: Participants could select all that apply. Participants may have been treated during the last year and more than a year ago.