Premium
Self‐harm in young people: Prevalence, associated factors, and help‐seeking in school‐going adolescents
Author(s) -
Doyle Louise,
Treacy Margaret P.,
Sheridan Ann
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.911
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1447-0349
pISSN - 1445-8330
DOI - 10.1111/inm.12144
Subject(s) - harm , suicide prevention , mental health , public health , injury prevention , medicine , psychology , psychiatry , poison control , clinical psychology , environmental health , nursing , social psychology
Adolescent self‐harm is recognized as a serious public health problem; however, there is little reliable comparative data on its prevalence or characteristics, or on the extent of help‐seeking for self‐harm. The aims of the present study were to determine the prevalence and associated factors of adolescent self‐harm in an urban region in I reland, and to investigate help‐seeking behaviours for self‐harm. This was a cross‐sectional study of 856 school‐going adolescents, employing an anonymous self‐report questionnaire. A lifetime history of self‐harm was reported by 12.1% of adolescents. Factors independently associated with self‐harm included exposure to self‐harm of a friend/family member. Professional help‐seeking was uncommon prior to (9%) and after (12%) self‐harm. Furthermore, only 6.9% of adolescents presented to hospital as a result of their last self‐harm act. These findings indicate that self‐harm is common in adolescents; however, seeking professional help is not a common phenomenon, and those who present to hospital represent the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of adolescent self‐harm. Identifying the prevalence of self‐harm and associated factors, in addition to help‐seeking behaviours, in young people is important to determine the preventative programmes to target ‘at‐risk’ groups. Mental health nurses have an important and increasing role to play in such school‐based initiatives.