Special Issue Introduction: The Place of Self-Harm in Adolescent Development

Excerpt

The study of adolescence appropriately includes fascinating research agendas that remind us of how adolescents are not as troubled and troubling as many would have us believe. Indeed, the prior editor of this journal, Daniel Offer, spearheaded much of the rethinking of negative perceptions of adolescents’ experiences and development (see Offer, 2007; Levesque, 2007). Yet, there is no denying that some youth considerably suffer and that many youth inflict harm on themselves. We have known for quite some time that the most obvious forms of self-harm, such as cutting, mutilation, and injury, are present in approximately 15% of community samples of adolescents (see, e.g., Laye-Gindhu and Schonert-Reichl 2005). Somewhat surprisingly, researchers studying healthy adolescent development have not investigated the roots of adolescents’ self harm as much as one might have expected, and even more striking has been the failure to consider the breadth of self-destructive behaviors. During the past 5 years, for example, this journal only has published five articles directly related to self-harm, with the articles ranging from a focus on suicidality (Hüsler et al. 2005), nonsuicidal self-harm (Laye-Gindhu and Schonert-Reichl 2005), friends’ suicides (Liu, 2006) and factors contributing to suicidal ideation (Sun & Hui, 2007) and to suicidal behavior (Sigfusdottir et al. 2008). A quick look at leading developmental journals focusing on adolescents but not associated with clinical, counseling or medical associations reveals that each either has published none (Journal of Adolescent Research and Journal of Early Adolescence) or only two (Journal of Research on Adolescence and Youth and Society) over the same time period. Although it is important not to loose sight of the reality that many youth transition relatively well into and out of adolescence, it seems equally important not to neglect the harms that adolescents suffer on their own volition. Equally important is the need to realize that the reasons adolescents may harm themselves and put themselves at risk rest in relationships that they have with others and in the wide variety of sociocultural forces that likely shape their entire development. …