Risk Behaviors of High School Students Who Report Knowing Someone Who Self-Harms

Abstract

Self-harm involves the direct and deliberate destruction of body tissue without suicidal intent and is identified as a maladaptive attempt to cope with stressful emotions. This descriptive, correlational study used a secondary analysis of 5,411 high school students where 72% (n = 3,895) reported knowing someone who had cut or tried to harm themselves in some other way. Students who reported knowing someone who self-harms were more likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and use drugs. These students also reported higher rates of bullying, cyberbullying, in addition to Internet risk taking with sexting, and receiving sexts. Nurses, practitioners, and other professionals are in key roles to assess risk taking behaviors in adolescents. Focused health interventions and educational programs that emphasize screening, prevention, risk reduction and safety in addition to long-term impact are imperative to detect vulnerable and at-risk adolescents.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Denise Wilson, MA, Research Associate, Department of Sociology and Criminology, Villanova University for statistical support. Data used for this work was collected in 2012 by a project supported by Grant No. 2006-JW-BX-K069 awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. The first author would like to acknowledge the project management expertise and support of Jeffrey Gersh, Program Manager at OJJDP.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no financial disclosures and no conflicts of interest.