According to a new research, teenage girls more likely to indulge in self-harm than boys. In fact, there has been a surge in cases of self-harm reported for adolescent girls aged between 13-16 years from 2011 to 2014. This is in comparison with boys of the same age.
Study
Dr Cathy Morgan at the University of Manchester is the lead author of the study. She, along with her team, set out to investigate trends in self-harm amongst children and teenager referral rates to specialist mental health services, and mortality rates amongst children and teenagers following self-harm.
The research sheds light on the disproportionate relationship between the number of self-harm cases and mental health specialist services.
Cases of self-harm is widely prevalent among children and adolescents. Moreover, the chances of committing suicide among these groups is normally high.
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A key finding of the research was that children and teenagers who self-harmed were nine times more likely to die unnaturally than unaffected young people with an especially marked increased risk of suicide and acute alcohol/drug poisoning death
"This emphasizes the opportunity for earlier intervention in primary care to reduce suicide risk," said Morgan.
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Factors affecting mental health
Common mental health problems among females at this age added to biological factors like onset of puberty and onset of sexual activity. These are important factors that trigger such activities.
The author believes that the adolescents are living in a highly stressful world which results in such problems.
"Exposure to digital media and its potential impact on children and adolescents' mental health is the centre of continued media debate. Of course such technologies can be helpful and facilitate access to care but there is also a suggestion that extreme 'connectedness' could have detrimental effects", she continued.
Solutions
The study concluded by mentioning that there is an urgent need for integrated care involving families, schools and healthcare provision to enhance safety among these distressed young people in the short term, and to help secure their future mental health and wellbeing.
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