How do adolescents talk about self-harm: a secondary analysis v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
How do adolescents talk about self-harm: a secondary analysis of SHIFT trial data
IRAS ID
199026
Contact name
Robert Holliday
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 10 days
Research summary
Research points towards an increase in self-harming rates over the last 20 years. Self-harm can be thought of 'as any act of self-poisoning or self-injury carried out by an individual irrespective of motivation’. Higher rates of self-harm have been found in adolescents and young adults and research suggests self-harm first occurs between 12-14 years of age. Adolescents who self-harm are at higher risk of a repeated episode and self-harm is a key risk factor in completed suicide. Research in this area is extremely important; understanding the reasons why adolescents choose to harm themselves could be used to inform treatment and more broadly to further develop early intervention programmes.
The aim of this study is to explore how adolescents talk about self-harm. The study is a secondary analysis of data captured in the SHIFT trial; Self-harm Intervention, Family Therapy: A randomised controlled trial of family therapy vs. treatment as usual for young people seen after second or subsequent episodes of self-harm. The data consists of videoed family therapy sessions where the participants have consented for their material to be used in future research. This study will include those participants who have a minimum of 3 Family Therapy sessions recorded. It is envisaged that a sample of 50 to 60 participants will be included to capture a range of experiences. The therapy sessions will be scrutinised for instances where the young people talk about self-harm. This data will be analysed using thematic analysis to capture patterns in the data that relate to how young people view and talk about their self-harm.
REC name
London - South East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/0362
Date of REC Opinion
3 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion