There is a clear looming danger of psychological consequences amongst the American adolescent population. According to Nixon & Heath 2008, adolescents face the risk of committing deliberate self harm (DSH) at an alarming rate of 10 percent at ages between 15 to 16 years. Although the DSH has also been noted amongst the adults, much focus is being taken on the adolescents since the effects are more fatal to the future of U.
S. Adolescents have been known to experience distressing and intense emotions resulting from either their peers or from parents (Harrison & Daly, 2006).Furthermore absence of appropriate emotional support has been prevalent to many adolescents. Although not conclusive, the two aforementioned issues greatly explain the causes of DSL. Probably, emotional torture generate from physical or sexual abuse among other factors that the American adolescents are faced with in their normal life.
Ideally, actions of DSL could be attributed to personal irresponsibility by self determinists although the age factor may not allow. When the said actions are noted among adults, they may be regarded as lack of purpose and reasonable care to oneself. In contrast, the adolescents’ minds are immature and hence DSL amongst them must be attributed to societal failure to nurture its youngsters.DescriptionViner 2005 describes DSL as an act manifested as an initiated behaviour such as self cutting whose intent is self harm, ingestion of illicit drug or non-ingestible objects as well as therapeutic dose in excess. Furthermore, the actions are intentional and result to acute self damage. Ironically, only a handful of adolescents possess sufficient knowledge regarding the working of their bodies in judging the impacts of the actions they commit in DSL.
Indeed, for most self harm cases, the intention is not really directed at introduction of physical pain to self but on relieving of emotional pain (Hawton, Rodham & Evans, 2006). Unfortunately, the physiological self suffers most. Some of the reasons why adolescents engage in DSL include search for coping mechanisms, self punishment in case of failure as well as means of attracting attention.ObjectivesThis group study will focus on the four major objectives.- Prevalence rates of DSL among adolescents.
- Manifestations of deliberate self harm- Causes and motives behind DSL.- Prevention of DSL.SummaryDeliberate self harm is a nowadays a common phenomenon not just among the adolescents but also in adults. This problem needs to be addresses appropriately by conducting the necessary research so that the root and main causes of the problem can be dealt with. Furthermore, there is dire need to bring to the limelight the statistics of prevalence of DSL to the general public so that relevant individuals and organisations may take relevant measures to confront DSL (Taylor & Field, 2007)
