As alternatives, all those young people or adolescents belonging to the urban tribes known as: Emo, Punk, Gothic and other subcultures are identified. Now a study has found that half of alternative teens have self-harmed and that 1 in 5 have attempted suicide .
These are the alarming data that emerge from the work carried out by the public health and social sciences unit of the University of Glasgow (United Kingdom) in collaboration with researchers from the University of Ulm (Germany) published in the journal BMC Psychiatry .
The experts studied 452 students between the ages of 14 and 15 , who were asked to describe how identified they felt with certain specific youth cultures (dark, goth, nerd, athletes …). They also collected data on their gender, social and economic condition of the parents and if they had suffered bullying. Upon examination of the data, the researchers found that all youth who identified with alternative cultures were 4.3 times more likely to self-harm and 7 times more likely to attempt suicide . Of all the subcultures, those who showed the least inclination to both were those classified as athletes or athletes.
Global estimates suggest that 30% of all adolescents have suicidal thoughts , 18% have ever self-harmed , and 4% have attempted suicide . Understanding why different groups of adolescents hurt themselves, we hope will lead us to early detection and help develop effective interventions for people at risk of self-harm or suicide, ”said Robert Young, leader of the study.
