Alarm over young kids self-harming

KIDS as young as six are intentionally self-harming while boys aged six to 10 are more than twice as likely to be hospitalised for hurting themselves than girls of the same age.

And the percentage of “serious” self-harm injuries is almost six times higher in kids aged six to 10 than those aged 11-16, a new study has found.

An Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health study that examined 18,223 self-harm hospitalisa- tions in under-17s nationally between 2001 and 2012 found the majority of those aged six to 10 were male.

Of 124 children in that age group, 75 per cent were boys but this was flipped in the group aged 11 to 16, where 82 per cent of those hospitalised after self-harm were female.

Study lead author Rebecca Mitchell, from Macquarie University, said the male self-harm hospitalisation rate had increased by about 2.5 per cent each year during the study.

“That’s another red flag . . . for a child to be in that sort of position and feel that was the only option for them, it’s very alarming,” she said.

Researchers found 20 per cent of children aged six to 10 suffered “serious” self-harm injuries compared to just 3.5 per cent of those aged 11 to 16.

Parenting expert Dr Justin Coulson said adverse childhood experiences such as trauma, depression and exposure to substance abuse could result in kids hurting themselves.

However, he said it was still unclear why more boys were hospitalised for self-harm at a young age than girls.

“They may be more likely to act on what they’ve seen.

“Even if they’re not seeing self-harm, they’re more likely to be in high-risk situations where they’re seeing often destructive behaviours.”

Meanwhile, girls aged 11 to 16 had the highest hospitalisation rate following self-harm, at 184.4 per 100,000.

“Hospitalisation following self-harm tends to be higher for females, compared to males, with a female-male ratio of at least five to one,” authors of the study wrote.

Dr Coulson said childhood issues were generally internalised early on and externalised in the teenage years.

“That’s why we see particularly for girls those high selfharm rates as they come into adolescence,” he said.

The most common selfharm injury leading to hospitalisation was for “poisoning”, or overdosing on medication, which affected 82 per cent.

Injuries by a “sharp object” or cutting affected 13 per cent.