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Adolescents and Self-injury:
Implications for Parents and Families

Stephanie Newberg, MEd, MSW, LCSW
August 13, 2007

The adolescent time period can be a very challenging and confusing one for parents, as well as teens. The issues that get triggered by having children develop through the adolescent years can be exhausting and exhilarating. They brings up parents’ past feelings about their own growing up years as well as the fears and dreams they have for their children. Parents usually want their children to have even more positive and possibly more protective experiences than they had themselves.

The myriad of stressors and issues that face adolescents today, are both similar and different, from the ones that their parents faced during their own adolescent years. The issues that are probably the most different are ones relating to the advancement of the internet as a vehicle of communication and how in turn, teens maintain connection and closeness within their relationships. The internet as well as other current social and family structural changes can create the potential for stress and conflict in their lives.

The main developmental tasks that adolescents are trying to resolve and work through are: self-control, self-efficacy, self- expression, creating a new support system for themselves (away from parents), maintaining mood, and becoming comfortable with their bodies. If teens have problems in one or any of these areas, they can become susceptible to having poor coping strategies and poor self-esteem. In addition, when teens struggle with the above issues, and have either a predisposition to mental health problems or have family losses, extreme family conflict, or family addictions, they sometimes turn to self-injurious or self-destructive behaviors as a way to cope with internal pain and turmoil. Self-injurious behaviors can have an addictive quality and some studies suggest that 10%- 13% of adolescents have engaged in this behavior at some point. The most common self injurious behaviors are cutting, hair pulling, excessive tattooing and/or body piercing. Self-injurious behaviors are defined as: the act of attempting to alter a mood state by inflicting physical harm serious enough to cause tissue damage or injury to one's body.

As a parent, it is very important that you gain an understanding of what self-injurious behaviors are, and how to get adolescents the appropriate help and attention that they need. The professional help that is most recommended is both individual and family therapy. Here are some tips on how to help adolescents who self-injure:

1. Serve as role models for using effective coping strategies and conflict resolution.
2. Help them talk out feelings by being non-judgmental.
3. Teach them how to self-soothe and practice healthy stress management techniques.
4. Help them learn anger management techniques.

This isn’t easy for parents, nor is it easy for their teens, but understanding how and why these behaviors can develop and how to help can go a long way in preventing and treating a problem that seems to have become more pervasive in our society over the last thirty years.

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Stephanie Newberg, MEd, MSW, LCSW is a Senior Staff Therapist and Assistant Director of CFR's Center City and Wynnewood offices. She can be reached at 610-642-2648 ext. 7.

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