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Teens: Cutting and Self-Injury
The term deliberate self-harm is frequently employed as
a more encompassing term for self-injurious behaviours
both with and without suicidal intent that have non-fatal
outcomes. This term tends to be used predominantly
within European countries and in Australia. In contrast,
many studies published by researchers within Canada and
the United States have employed the term Non-suicidal
self-injury (NSSI); the deliberate, self-inflicted destruc-
tion of body tissue without suicidal intent and for pur-
poses not socially sanctioned; which explicitly excludes be-
haviours engaged in with any level of suicidal intention.
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After all data from the selected studies were compiled and analyzed,
the researchers determined that the worldwide lifetime prevalence of NSSI
among adolescents averaged 18 percent. Some of the highest incidence rates
were found in Belgium, Germany, and the United States, with Hungary and
Japan having the lowest rates. Regarding the evaluation of DSH data, the
average lifetime prevalence was found to be 16.1 percent. Norway and the
Netherlands had the lowest incidence of DSH, and Italy had the highest.
One especially promising discovery was that worldwide incidence of
self-injury among adolescents does not seem to be increasing, which con-
trasts with suggestions from other researchers and clinicians. The authors
write: “Within the past five years the percentage of adolescents report-
ing NSSI or DSH is relatively consistent and stable. Thus, it appears the
global lifetime prevalence of self-injury among community adolescents
may have stabilized.”
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England’s Self-Harm Crisis
Although the Muehlenkamp study found that the worldwide prevalence
of adolescent self-harm has stabilized, that determination is based on av-
erages; a closer look at certain countries reveals that the problem has been
growing. One of these countries is England, where according to a World
Health Organization study published in 2014, there has been a three-
fold increase in the number of teenagers who self-harm. “Our findings
are really worrying,”
33
says Fiona Brooks, who was the study’s principal
investigator for England.
The survey, called
Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children
, has been
