Per Mental Health America, the definition of self-injury is as follows: “Self-injury, also known as self-harm, self-mutilation, or self-abuse occurs when someone intentionally and repeatedly harms herself/himself in a way that is impulsive and not intended to be lethal.”

Self-injury, in plain terms, is the act of physically harming oneself without the intent to die. The most common type of self-injury cutting oneself with a sharp object, though there are many different methods that individuals use to self-injure.

As a parent or teacher, you may be wondering “Why would a child or teen do this?” Thought it can be hard to understand what may drive a student to self-injurious behavior, there are quite a few reasons that kids may engage in it.

Usually when a child or teenager self-injures, the behavior is used as a coping skill. When a child cannot think of positive coping skills during times of high stress, they may partake in self-injury as a way to “cope with” or “relieve” their emotional distress. By harming themselves physically, they are temporarily distracted from whatever strong, negative emotions they were feeling. So, self-injury is a way to “cope” with negative emotions- though it is a negative, harmful way to cope.

Self-injury is a behavior that greatly impacts many areas of development for an elementary or middle school student. The social and emotional impact of self-injury are the most prominent and noticeable.  As mentioned previously, self-injury is not a suicide attempt. When one takes part in self-injurious behaviors, they are typically not doing so because they want to die. If one self-injures regularly over a long period of time, however, their risk for suicidal thoughts greatly increases. Self-injury, over time, often leads to hopelessness, low self-esteem, feelings of worthlessness, and other risk factors that are ultimately predictive of suicide.  Though one may have no suicidal ideation or intent when they begin to self-injure, they may eventually find themselves feeling suicidal if they begin to use self-injury as a regular coping skill. Because many students use self-injury as a way to “cope” with negative emotions- this can affect the way the brain develops. The brain accepts self-injury as a way to relieve negative emotions, causing the student to lack alternative, healthy coping skills. Those that self-injure also have the tendency to begin isolating themselves. This may be because they feel shameful, they do not want others to notice that they are self-injuring, etc. This leads to other social repercussions, such as a student not developing and maintaining relationships at school or home. Overall, elf-injury has a large effect on one’s social and emotional development and well-being.

So, knowing all of this information- what can we do as parents or teachers to help reduce incidents of self-injury? Teaching and practicing healthy coping skills with students is certainly a great place to start. Whether it is journaling, exercise, getting involved in school, building support networks, meditating, etc. etc.- the list of potential healthy coping mechanisms goes on and on!

Helping to foster these coping skills in students will reduce the amount of students that turn to self-injury during times of high stress. Resiliency and communication skills would also be helpful. The more resilient a child is, and the more likely a child is to communicate their feelings openly to trusted individuals, the less at risk they will be for self-injury. If we as educators and parents can help foster resiliency and communication skills in students, we will be helping them not only prepare for their future career, but also helping them to cope and seek help during times of need.

Another way that we can deal with this issue if we notice a child is self-injuring- is by expressing empathy, validating their feelings, and offering support. Though self-injury is not inherently an attention seeking behavior, children that self-injure are in great need of individual attention and help. It is important to validate the child’s feelings- perhaps saying something like “It sounds like you are going through a really hard time, let’s see who we can talk to to get you help” as opposed to “You really shouldn’t be doing this, and you have a great life you shouldn’t feel this way.” Telling a child how they should or should not feel will likely lead to feelings of shame and guilt- which may then encourage the child to continue self-injuring. Instead, these kids are in need of understanding and care.