Windows of vulnerability: Identifying critical age, gender, and racial differences predictive of risk for violent deaths in childhood and adolescence.

An analysis of national data was completed to assess historical trends in age differences regarding incidents of accidental, homicidal, and suicidal deaths of children and adolescents. Analyses were completed on data for 1979 and 1984 examining gender × age and race × age differences using raw frequencies, ratios of death to size of living cohort, and percentage of a given form of death to all deaths. Historical trends reveal a general decline in incidents of the three leading external causes of death. Males were at greater risk than females in both 1979 and 1984. Age difference comparisons reveal greatest increase in incidence occurs between early and middle adolescence with continuing increases into late adolescence. Implications for prevention and intervention are made. Speculation based on a gender intensification hypothesis is advanced for observed gender differences. Racial differences are discussed from a socio-contextual perspective. Age differences are thought to be bio-socially related, while historical trend differences may be due to cohort size differences, cultural change, or prevention efforts due to changes in age of majority laws (e.g., drinking).