‘Heart breaking’ rise in self-harm among young teenage girls

Self-harm among young teenage girls rose nearly 70 per cent after 2011, due partly to “extreme” obsession with social media compared to boys, a new study has found.

Psychiatric experts say the “heartbreaking” figures reflect a growing culture of teens encouraging each other to self-harm by sharing videos and pictures of the practice online.

Last night they called for greater vigilance among parents and schools, while ministers denounced the “worrying” trend.

The analysis of GP data, published in British Medical Journal, also suggested that dissatisfaction over physical appearance among young teenage girls was a factor driving self-harm.

In 2011, 45.9 girls per 10,000 harmed themselves, the figures suggest, a number that rose 68 per cent to 77 per 10,000 in 2014.

Approximately 80 per cent of incidents relate to self-poisoning, the authors said.

Across all people aged between 10 and 19, girls had a roughly three times higher chance of self-harming than boys.

The University of Manchester academics who conducted the research said a culture of “extreme connectedness” could be contributing to the rise.

“The numbers are massive,” said Professor Nav Kapur.

“The main thing we’re worried about is when social media normalises something like self-harm.

“Probably the most damaging thing is sharing methods of suicide — that’s what really concerns us.”

He added, however, that many teenagers found social media and the wider internet valuable sources of support.

Previous research has found that children who self-harm are 17 times more likely to go on to commit suicide compared to children who do not, and nine times more likely to die unnaturally, which could mean suicide but also incidents such as fatal drug overdoses.

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.”

The suicide rate for females in England aged between 10 and 29 years has risen from 2.7 per 100,000 in 2012 to 3.2 per 100,000 in 2015.