Sociocultural+Impact+on+Adolescents+Who+Self-Harm

=Introduction = toc In today’s society, deliberate [|self-harm]  is a significant problem among adolescents. Self-harm is any intentional act of self-injury or self-poisoning. Self-injury usually refers to self-cutting, but there are other methods such as burning oneself, running into oncoming traffic, hanging, and self-battery. Adolescence is a time of great change, crisis, and pressure for many teenagers. This period of physical, sexual, emotional, intellectual, and social development gives adolescents a tendency for impulsive over-reaction. The immense pressure teenagers have upon them leads to manipulative and self-destructive behavior to which one’s body becomes the target. This problem is one of the most common reasons for hospitalization in adolescents in current day. There is a need for research in the adolescent community, as self-harm is becoming more prevalent. This research would focus on society's effect on the act of self-harm in adolescents. Social media, contagion and previous trauma all play large factors in self-harm in adolescents.

=Medias Influence on Self-Harm = Today’s [|media] can be greatly influential on teenagers and the way they perceive themselves. Television and magazines portray unrealistic standards that adolescents will go to drastic measures to accomplish or, if they never accomplish them, resort to self-harm as a way to take out their feelings of despair. A study conducted by Megan Moreno investigated the language of self-harm on Instagram and how it influenced adolescents. 225 public posts were located and evaluated via structured approach. This study found that hashtags were often ambiguous, leading to a lack of Content Advisory warnings. This can be dangerous as parents and guardians of adolescents may not be able to fully comprehend what their children are looking at or posting on social media sites. According to the researchers in this study, “our study illustrates that relying on administrators of specific sites to generate warnings about potentially harmful content is not sufficient protection for adolescents from concerning or inappropriate content.” Another study found that music may also influence self-harming behavior to a considerable extent. A study was conducted on students from two high schools, they found a strong correlation between students’ preference of rock/metal and suicidal thoughts and self-harm. It was concluded that students felt worse about themselves after listening to rock and metal which establishes media’s influence on adolescents and their vulnerability to suicidal thoughts and self-harming actions. (Martin et al. 1993) However, from the data we can still see the content and style of music can influence adolescents to try and engage in self-destructive behaviors. The internet has a plethora of webpages that display harmful information to adolescents depicting images or providing information about self-harm. Daine (2013) analyzed research literature to determine if the internet influences the risk of self-harm in young people. This study found that youth who self-harm use the internet most often for coping strategies. However, the internet “may exert a negative influence, normalizing self-harm and potentially discouraging disclosure or professional help-seeking.” Teenagers may use forms of social media to seek help for their problems, however social media can also be used to discover new methods of self-harm or form communities based off of self-harming behavior.

=Contagion in Self-Harm = One study found that there was a significant association between self-harm in both sexes and deliberate self-harm by friends. (Ystgaard et al., 2003) When individuals know and associate with others who self-harm, their chances of self-harming themselves are far greater. Steven Stack investigated the effects of media in not only self-harm but suicide. This study investigated media impacts on suicide in eastern nations, specifically Japan where suicide is not seen as shameful, therefore [|contagion] may occur more frequently. Data on suicide from 1992 was provided from the Japan Statistic Bureau and data from publicized suicides were obtained from American celebrities and Japanese suicides. Stack found that there is a link between media and suicide. However, there is no link between publicized cases of suicide in foreigners having an impact in suicide rates in present place. Another study conducted by Hawton and Rodham (2006), found that adolescent males who have friends who self-harm are 7 times more likely to engage in self-destructive behavior and girls are four and a half times more likely to self-harm if their friends have a history of self-harm. This study tells us that school based mental health resources need to be implemented and encouraged. The stigma around receiving help for mental health issues needs to decrease and “approaches aimed at educating school pupils about mental health problems and screening for those at risk” (Hawton et al. 2002) need to be increased. Connection to peers and feeling a sense of belonging is an important factor in growing up. Pain and struggle provide powerful sources of connection to others and identification among peers. Exposure to suicide or self-harm leads to the availability of method, as demonstrated in the chart below. After adolescents go through a period of psychological distress and hopelessness, self-harm or suicide can become result. Studies have shown that deliberate self-harm can occur as a way to create feelings of togetherness within a group. (Taiminen et al., 1998)



 [|Chart] displaying the factors the result in self-harm or suicide.

=Previous Traumatic Events and Their Effects on Self-Harmers = When a child undergoes tragic events such as [|abuse] and [|violence], it can affect them greatly in the future. Gratz (2006) states, an invalidating environment consists of “one in which the communication of private experiences is disregarded, trivialized, or punished, displays of negative affect are generally not tolerated, the control of emotional experience and expression is expected, and caregivers may be both overinvolved and non-responsive to children’s needs.” A study conducted by Tuppett Yates (2004), used a framework to create a pathway originating in childhood trauma resulting in self-injury. This framework is then used to model the development of self-injurious behavior. He found that “self-harming individuals who had been severely traumatized in childhood undermine their normal developmental process regarding establishing a cohesive sense of self, regulating affect, controlling impulsivity, and establishing healthy relationships with others.” (The Adolescent & Young Adult Self-Harming Treatment Manual. Page 15)

=Conclusion = In conclusion, society affects adolescents in ways that can create self-harming behavior. Approximately 9% of all adolescents self-harm, whether it is to cope with the powerful emotions that come along with growing up, a way for them to gain control, or a method they use to punish themselves for not being able to live up to society’s ever growing standards that are near impossible for the average adolescent to accomplish. The “trend” of self-harm rises when people the adolescent associates with self-harms. This correlation is known better than how media overall influences self-harm. However, specific parts of media such as music and social media have substantial amounts of research conducted demonstrating the correlation. Media, contagion, and previous traumatic events all play a role in the rising rates of self-harm among adolescents. In the future, research concerning the effects of society on adolescents leading to self-harm should address the stigma of receiving help for mental-health issues.

=References =

K. Daine, K. Hawton, V. Singaravelu, A. Stewart, S. Simkin, P. Montgomery. “The Power of the Web: A Systematic Review of Studies of the Influence of the Internet on Self-Harm and Suicide in Young People”. PLOS ONE. (2013)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">M. Grahm “Adolescent Suicide: Music Preference as an Indicator of Vulnerability”. Journal of the American Academy of Chold and Adolescent Psychiatry. Vol 32, no 3, pp 530, (1993).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">K. Gratz. “Risk Factors for Deliberate Self-harm among Female College Students: The Role and Interaction of Childhood Maltreatment, Emotional Inexpressivity, and Affect Intensity/Reactivity.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. Vol 76, no. 2, pp 238-250, (2006).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">K. Hawton, K. Rodham, E. Evans, R. Weatherall. “Deliberate self-harm in adolescents: self report survey in schools in England.” BMJ: British Medical Journal. Pp 1207-1211, (2002)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">M. Moreno, A. Ton, E. Selkie, Y. Evans. “Secret Society 123: Understanding the Language of Self-Harm on Instagram”. Journal of Adolescent Health. Vol 58, no. 1, pp 78-84, (2016).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">S. Stack. “The effect of the Media on Suicide: Evidence From Japan, 1955-1985”. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. Pp 132-142, (1996).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">M. Selekman. The adolescent and young adult self-harming treatment manual: a collaborative strengths-based brief therapy approach. New York: Norton. (2009)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">T. Taiminen, K. Kallio-Soukainen, H. Nokso-Koivisto, A. Kaljonen, H. Helenius. "Contagion of Deliberate Self-Harm Among Adolescent Inpatients." Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Vol 37, no 2. pp 211-217, (1998)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">T. Yates. “The Developmental Psychopathology of Self-Injurious Behavior: Compensatory Regulation in Posttraumatic Adaptation.” Clinical Psychology Review. Vol 24, no. 1 pp 35-74, (2004)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">M. Ystgaard, NP Reinholdt, J. Husby, L. Mehlum, "Deliberate Self-Harm in Adolescents" Tidsskrift for den Norske laegeforening: tidsskrift for praktisk medicin, ny raekke. Vol 123, no. 16, pp 2241-2245, (2003)