Is there a correlation between internet platform usage and the self-harming behavior, and recovery management of young people?

 

Abstract: this research aims to consider the relation of young people using vari-ous internet platforms and the affect it has on their self-harming behaviors and recovery management.

 

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Keywords: self-harming behavior, recovery management, internet platform.

 

There are major gaps in current research surrounding young people and their usage of online mediums and whether it has a positive or negative effect on them, especially in relation to male gender and LGBT communities. This research aims to highlight these gaps and to also discuss the current research as a starting point to explore the relationship to the growing internet use and young people’s self-harming behaviors.

 

The research will be carried out by completing a literature review, in-tending to bring together carefully selected journal articles to study and ana-lyse the results gathered by other researchers, this will then be developed through thematic analysis to enable the researcher to discuss commonalities and differences found within different articles.

 

The research analyzed suggests that overall there appears to be positive and negative aspects with regards to young people using online websites and forums to help themselves with their self-harming behaviors. The research also pointed out gaps in current exploration and how difficult it is to produce valid and thorough research with ever changing internet pages, which can change daily. This makes it very difficult to monitor the sites information and the dai-ly usage of young people.

 

In conclusion, it can be discussed that there are positive and negative ef-fects of young people using online sources but further research needs to be carried out.

 

Introduction. “Self-harm is an expression of personal distress, usuallymade in private, by an individual who intentionally hurts him or herself. The nature and meaning of self-harm, however, vary greatly from person to person. In addition, the reason a person harms him or herself may be different on each occasion and should not be presumed the same.” (NICE, 2007) This definition from the NICE guidelines on Self-Harm (SH) gives a wide scope for defining SH, which explains the wide use of many different descriptions of SH.

 

There are many forms of SH, Mind (2013c) list different forms such as cutting, poisoning, eating disorders, biting, burning, hitting oneself or objects, overdosing, hair pulling, risky behavior and promiscuity. The list most certain-ly does not end there, there are many ways young adults find to harm them-selves and every person is different and may use more than one method when self-harming. The results of cutting or burning are immediate and along with binge eating or food restriction where they are harmful to the body, these are more harmful to one’s self and visible. Compared to binge drinking, smoking

 

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and risky behavior that are more socially acceptable behaviors and not neces-sarily related to the norms that are upheld by society as to what SH is. (Free-man, 2010, 37)

 

Methodology. The research was carried out by completing a literaturereview, using various inclusion and exclusion criteria to narrow down the re-sults, this also helped developed the articles into themes to be able to discuss the results.

 

Results/Discussion. Overall the studies did not use large datasets onlyusing a small group of individuals for each study, for example Singaravelu et al, (2015): Baker and Fortune, (2008) only using 6 and 10 participants for their studies this could raise the question of how robust the studies were and how valid and reliable their results were.

 

This research is helpful to see what type of applications are so readily available to YP without much monitoring, which also can argue for the fact that this study would have to be repeated regularly as applications can be up-loaded, removed and changed to the application store daily, but as discussed it does allow for a snapshot into where YP could be getting their information from.

 

It was found that a high level of participants spoke highly of the value of support that they received online, contributing to their recovery. It could be ar-gued that the importance of belonging enabled many to feel that they finally had a community, a sense of belonging that may have relieved some of the thoughts to SH. (Harris and Roberts, 2013: Baker and Fortune, 2008:Hilton, 2016: Daine et al, 2013: Singaravelu et al, 2015: Dyson et al, 2016: Larsen et al, 2016) Although the communities created by these sites seem to produce a positive effect, it does further marginalize people from society as they are placed differently within society and become entrenched in the online world rather than communicating with friends within their own school.

 

Lewis et al (2012) also found that only a small number of comments with graphic videos were a trigger to YP that already SH, which goes against clinical assumption that graphic images and videos may trigger YP to SH. (Lewis et al, 2012, 384).

 

Conclusion. This research has shown that there are many opposingviews with regards to the influence that internet use has on YP. It has demon-strated a wide scope for future studies within internet use and SH behavior.

 

It was made clear that the population of YP’s internet use is growing and that more medical and clinical sites need to be created to grow with the need,

 

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many are using the internet to search for help and support, and are receiving other people with their experiences compared to being directed to medical as-sistance which could decrease the suicidal ideation that was found to link with the internet usage.

 

Recommendations. Online interventions are required to allow YP andfamilies to be able to access safe to use sites, Sarah Kessling (2017) spoke about how making sites safe, desirable and effective are the three key relations that must work interchangeably for the internet to be a successful medium for young people to use.

 

Another recommendation for consideration is approaching hard to reach groups, males are extremely underrepresented in studies alongside LGBT communities where some research has shown that the numbers of people that SH in these communities could be also well underrepresented as not many males report their SH or indeed end up suiciding rather than self-harming. However, research has shown that LGBT communities feel safer using online chat rooms for many issues, but are still underrepresented as a SH community.

 

Literature

 

Anon. Mind. URL: http://mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/self-harm/#.WDLbIvDfWrU (аccessed: 21.11.2016).

 

Baker D., Fortune S. Understanding Self-Harm and Suicide Web-sites // Crisis. 2008. № 29(3). P. 118–122.

Daine K., Hawton K., Singaravelu V. The Power of the Web: A Sys-tematic Review of Studies of the Influence of the Interneton Self-Harm and Suicide in Young People // PLoSONE. 2013. № 8(10). P. 775–810.

Dyson M., Hartling L., Shulhan J. A Systematic Review of SocialMedia Use to Discuss and View Deliberate Self-Harm Acts // PLOSONE. 2016. № 11(5). P. 155–167.

Freeman J. Cover up. London: Veritas Publications, 2010.

 

Harris I., Roberts L. Exploring the Use and Effects of DeliberateSelf-Harm Websites: An Internet-Based Study // Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2013. № 15(12). P. 285–293.

 

Hilton E. Unveiling self-harm behavior: what can social media siteTwitter tell us about self-harm? A qualitative exploration //Journal of Clinical

 

Kessling S. Self-Harm and the Internet // Harmless ConferenceSpeaker. 2017. № 2 (13). P. 14–27.

 

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Larsen M., Nicholas J., Christensen H. A Systematic Assessment ofSmartphone Tools for Suicide Prevention // PLOSONE. 2016. № 11(4). P. 36– 47.

Lewis S., Heath N., Sornberger M. Helpful or Harmful? An Exami-nation of Viewers' Responses to Non suicidal Self-Injury Videos on YouTube

Journal of Adolescent Health. 2012. № 51(4). P. 380–385.

NICE. Self-harm: Short-term treatment and management understand-ing // NICE guidance – information for people who self-harm, their advocates and carers, and the public (including information for young people under 16 years) information from clinical guideline 16. URL: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg16/resources/selfharm-shortterm-treatment-and-management-189900253 (аccessed: 05.03.2017).

Singaravelu V., Stewart A., Adams J. Information-Seeking on the In-ternet // Crisis. 2015. № 36(3). P. 211–219.

 

 

Ceri Griffiths

 

University of Lincoln, Health and Social Care, UK, Lincoln Supervisor: Rachael Mason