Abstract

AIM: Strong associations have been found between being exposed to self-harm in family and friends and own self-harm in adolescence.

Therefore, self-harm and suicide behaviour might tend to cluster within school and school classes.

The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence, frequency and type of self-harm, suicide ideation and suicide attempts within Danish high schools and to test whether self-harm and suicide behaviour cluster in schools and school classes.

METHODS:Data came from the Danish National Youth Study 2014, a national survey.

The respective study included 66,284 high-school students nested in 117 schools and 3146 school classes.

The prevalence and clustering of self-harm behaviour, ever and within the last year, type of self-harm (e.g. cutting, burning, scratching and hitting) and suicide ideation and suicide attempts were investigated.

Multi-level logistic regression was applied to quantify clustering among participants within the same class and school.

RESULTS:In total, 12,960 (20%) reported self-harm ever and 5706 (8.6%) within the last year.

Prevalence was higher among girls than boys.

Among girls, cutting (15%) and scratching (13%) was the most common type of self-harm, whereas among boys, hitting (6.7%) was most prevalent.

The degree of clustering of self-harm and suicide behaviour was low, with school-level intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) ranging from 0.8-1.8% and school class level ICC’s from 4.3-6.8%.

CONCLUSIONS:This study shows that self-harm was common, especially in girls.

The degree of clustering of self-harm and suicide behaviour in school and school classes was low.

Citations

Pisinger VSC, Hawton K, Tolstrup JS, School- and class-level variation in self-harm, suicide ideation and suicide attempts in Danish high schools. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 17 Sep 2018, 47(2):146-156

Sponsorship: Supported by the NIHR

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494818799873

URI: https://www.oxfordhealth.nhs.uk/orka/title/school-and-class-level-variation-in-self-harm-suicide-ideation-and-suicide-attempts-in-danish-high-schools/