Citation

Westers NJ. Clin. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 2019; 24(4): 653-657.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Children's Medical Center Dallas, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1359104519873496

PMID

31502486

Abstract

A recent meta-analysis indicated that 22.9% of adolescents across the globe report having engaged in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) at least once in their lifetime and 18.6% report having engaged in NSSI in the past 12 months (Gillies et al., 2018). Although distinct from suicide behavior, NSSI is a strong risk factor for attempting suicide (Castellví et al., 2017). The World Health Organization (2018) has identified suicide as a public health priority, citing as a key fact that suicide is the second leading cause of death worldwide among 15- to 29-year-olds. This issue of Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry (CCPP) includes two articles that examine NSSI over time and one article that examines suicide attempts over time, all among clinical samples of adolescents in the United States, where 17.6% of adolescents in secondary school report having engaged in NSSI in the past 12 months (Monto, McRee, & Deryck, 2018) and suicide is the second leading cause of death not only among ages 15–29 but also among 10- to 14-year-olds (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017).

One common myth about NSSI is that adolescents who self-injure will “grow” out of the behavior, as if it is a phase or a fad (Lewis, Mahdy, Michal, & Arbuthnott, 2014). On the contrary, research has suggested that NSSI often persists into adulthood and that many adults who engage in NSSI began self-injuring when they were teenagers (Klonsky, 2011)...

Language: en