Citation

Knowles S, Townsend E, Anderson M. J. Health Psychol. 2013; 18(9): 1187-1198.

Affiliation

University of Nottingham, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1359105312459874

PMID

23129830

Abstract

Community-based young offenders are at high risk of self-harm and unlikely to be in contact with mental health services. Semi-structured interviews with community youth justice staff and a content analysis of 50 records of self-harm not only revealed staff concerns about the impact of stigma on disclosure and service use, but also found dismissive attitudes towards socially motivated self-harm, which was equated with lower suicide risk and less emotional distress. Efforts to improve identification of self-harm will need to address the perceived - and false - distinction between 'genuine' and socially motivated self-harm.

Language: en