TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Change in prevalence of self-harm from 2002 to 2018 among Norwegian adolescents
JO  - European journal of public health
A1  - Tørmoen, Anita J.
A1  - Myhre, Martin
A1  - Walby, Fredrik A.
A1  - Grøholt, Berit
A1  - Rossow, Ingeborg
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - BACKGROUND: Self-harm is prevalent among adolescents and associated with mental health problems and negative life-events. Few studies have examined changes in its prevalence related to these factors. This study explored whether changes in prevalence of self-harm among adolescents had occurred, and to what extent changes in associated factors may have contributed. <br><br>METHODS: Two cross-sectional school-based surveys among adolescents (grades 8-10) in Norway were conducted in 2002 (N = 5842) and in 2017/18 (N = 29 063). Past year prevalence of self-harm and identical variables on risk factors was analyzed in hierarchical logistic regression to examine whether and to what extent changes in self-harm correlates could explain periodical change in prevalence of self-harm. <br><br>RESULTS: An increase from 4.1% to 16.2% in self-harm prevalence was observed from 2002 to 2017/18. The increase was relatively larger among girls compared to boys and among 8th graders compared to 10th graders. Among the assessed risk factors for self-harm, depressive symptoms increased, while anti-social behavior, exposure to violent acts and drinking to intoxication decreased. The increase in depressive symptoms contributed to explain increase in self-harm. This contribution was outweighed by the decrease in other risk factors. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Self-harm prevalence increased 4-fold among Norwegian adolescents over a 15-year period. While exposure to several risk factors for self-harm changed substantially in this period, these risk factors could in sum not explain any of the increase in self-harm.<br><br>© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1101-1262
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaa042
ID  - ref1
ER  -