‘Rapid’ rise in teen girls self-harming

There has been a “rapid” rise in teenage girls selfharming in recent years, experts have found.

Between 2011 and 2014, reports of self-harm among British girls aged between 13-16 rose by 68%, according to new research.

Experts from the University of Manchester gathered data from 674 general practices across the UK on the number of children and adolescents aged 10-19 who had self-harmed.

The study found that between 2001 and 2014, 16,912 children and adolescents were identified as having selfharmed at least once.

Of these, almost three-quarters (73%) were girls.

For girls, the rate of self-harm was 37.4 out of every 10,000 girls, compared with 12.3 per 10,000 boys.

For girls aged 13-16 the rate rose from 45.9 per 10,000 in 2011 to 77.0 per 10,000 in 2014.

The authors said that high rates of selfharm could potentially be due to the emergence of common mental health problems at this age, as well as biological factors such as puberty and the onset of sexual activity.

They said that reasons behind the increase were speculative but added: “Some evidence indicates that common mental disorders are becoming more common among this age group — perhaps a reflection that today’s early adolescents are living in more stressful times.”

They added: “Exposure to digital media and its potential impact on children and adolescents’ mental health is the centre of continued media debate.

“Such technologies can be helpful and facilitate access to care but there is also a suggestion that extreme ‘connectedness’ could have detrimental effects.”

Overall, in about 55% of cases of selfharm, no referral to mental health services was documented.

The authors said that referral rates to psychiatric services were “low” which suggests “less severe cases or possible reflection of the challenges in accessing specialist services in a timely manner”.

An NSPCC spokesman said: “These heartbreaking figures are sadly unsurprising because Childline hears from so many young people who hurt themselves.

“Last year we held more than 15,000 counselling sessions about self-harm, and many young people who talked about suicidal feelings also mentioned self-harm.

“Self-harm can often be an expression of a deeper problem, which is why early intervention services to support these children are vital.”

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