Self-Injury Fact Sheet

The Youth Development framework focuses primarily on understanding how to help young people thrive. To do this, however, it is important to also understand young people’s expressions of discomfort and malady. Although not a new phenomenon, “self-injury” is a practice that hampers efforts to promote thriving and which may reflect toxic conditions in the social environments youth inhabit. Self-injury is the most common label for behaviors in which a person deliberately harms him or her body. Precisely what constitutes self-injury is a matter of some debate, but it is most commonly associated with intentional carving or cutting of the skin and subdermal tissue, scratching, burning, ripping or pulling skin or hair, bruising, or breaking bones. Some researchers include excessive piercing and tattooing. Recent films such as Thirteen and Girl, Interrupted along with disclosures of self-injurious behavior by well known people such as Johnny Depp and Princess Diana have begun to draw attention to this difficult to understand behavior. Since there are signs that self-injury is becoming increasingly prevalent, it is important to understand both the practice of selfinjury and the conditions that contribute to the seemingly increasing popularity of the behavior in the general youth population. This fACT sheet is designed to briefly summarize what is known.

What is Self-Injury?

Sometimes called “cutting,” “self-mutilation,” or “self-harm,” a precise definition of the behavior is difficult to come by. In its broadest definition self-injury is an act where an individual intentionally alters or destroys body tissue for purposes that are not aesthetic nor socially sanctioned. Cutting of the subdermal tissue is by far the most frequently reported form of self-injury (Favazza & Conterio, 1989). Self-injury can be performed on any part of the body, but most often occurs on the arms and wrists (Rosen & Heard, 1995). The severity of the act can vary from superficial wounds to those resulting in lasting disfigurement (Rosen & Heard, 1995).

What does research tell us about self-injury?

Unfortunately, very little is known about self-injury – particularly within the general adolescent population. Scientific studies of this subject, which began in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly focused on self-injury as a precursor to suicide. Investigation into the underlying motivations for self-injury reveals important distinctions between those attempting suicide and those who self-injure in order to manage their feelings and cope with overwhelming negative feelings. Consistent with this, most studies find that self-injury is often undertaken as a means of avoiding suicide.

Perhaps one of the most paradoxical features of self-injury is that most sufferers report doing it in order to relieve pain or to just feel something. Many self-injurers report overwhelming sadness, anxiety, or emotional numbness and the act of self-injury provides a way to manage intolerable feelings or a way to experience some sense of feeling. Those who self-injure may do so to feel in control of their bodies and minds, to express feelings, to communicate needs, to create visible and treatable wounds, to purify themselves, to reenact a trauma in an attempt to resolve it, or even to protect others from their emotional pain (DiLazzero, 2003). Self-injury can best be understood as a maladaptive coping mechanism, but one that works – at least for a while.

What underlying factors contribute to self-injury? Again, a lack of research in this area presents the biggest problem in answering this question. While virtually nothing is known about the causes of self-injury in a general population, clinical studies shed some light on this question. In these populations, self-injury is strongly linked to childhood abuse, especially childhood sexual abuse (Brodsky, Cloitre, & Dulit, 1995; Kolk, Perry, & Herman, 1991). In addition, there is evidence that earlier, more severe abuse and abuse by a family member may lead to greater dissociation and thus greater self-injury (Brodsky et al., 1995).