Adolescents’ experiences of having a friend who self-harms: What does this mean for friendship, the peer group and well-being?

This thesis evaluates and synthesises the current knowledge on the role of friendship in adolescent self-harm and directly explores the experiences of adolescents who have a friend who self-harms.
Chapter one is a literature review, critically appraising what is known about the role of friendship in adolescent self-harm. Friendship was found to be both a supportive factor and a risk factor in relation to self-harm in adolescence. These effects were found to be particularly prominent for females. Limited qualitative research has been conducted in this area and nothing has been carried out in the UK. Therefore it was recommended that further exploratory research in the UK would be of benefit.
Chapter two is an empirical paper designed to explore adolescents’ experiences of what it is like to have a friend who self-harms by cutting and what this means for friendship, the wider peer group and psychological well-being. Eight female adolescents living in England were recruited. They completed semi-structured interviews and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse the data. Four superordinate themes emerged: drive to understand, I’ll be there at all costs, too hot to handle and identification. The results highlight that friends have an important role in supporting adolescents who self-harm but need greater support in relation to managing this role, the concerns it comes with and the effects on psychological well-being. The implications for schools/colleges and young peoples’ services are discussed.
Chapter three includes two executive summaries of the empirical paper. The first is written for young people and the second, for parents, schools/colleges, mental health and other frontline professionals working in young people’s services. The aims of these are to make the research outcomes more accessible.