Seeking Secrecy: A Qualitative Study of Younger Adolescents' Accounts of Self-harm

Young people who self-harm face challenges in seeking help, and there is a lack of qualitative research with under 16s despite rates of self-harm being high and help-seeking low. Data were collected from 122 young people aged 13-26 years, 108 of whom were aged 13-16 years, through multiple methods. This included six focus group discussions with 33 young people who had limited experience of self-harm; in-depth interviews with five people who had self-harmed and a qualitative online survey completed by 88 young people who had self-harmed. The analysis was thematic. Participants articulated views which could inhibit help-seeking: Young people provided strong negative judgements about attention-seeking' as a motive for self-harm, while private' self-harm was valorized. Talking to others about self-harm was identified as beneficial, but it was unclear how possible this would be, if self-harm must also be kept secret'. Findings suggest that framing self-harm as private and secretive may be counterproductive.