Attitudes towards young people who self‐harm: age, an influencing factor

• DOI: 10.1111/jan.12451
• Publication Date: 2014-05-23T11:01:13Z
• Authors: Karen Cleaver; Liz Meerabeau; Pam Maras
• Keywords: Ambivalence

To determine the attitudes of emergency care staff towards young people (aged 12-18 years) who self-harm and to gain an understanding basis that exist.Young frequently attend services following self-harm; it is unclear whether being a person influences held.Mixed methods using triangulation convergent design.Survey 143 members from four accident & departments one ambulance service. Semi-structured interviews with seven children's A&E nurses five personnel same locality. Data were collected during 2010.Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient confirmed strong positive between scores on two scales used measure attitudes; paired samples t-test revealed statistically significant difference in across scales; practitioners held more self-harmed than per se. Both data sets presence ambivalence ambiguity held. The qualitative because their age immaturity not responsible for self-harming behaviours. Being did though influence subsequent admission, particular difficulty securing admission those aged 16-17 reported.Age factor shaping practitioners' also directs person's journey through care, although due there inconsistency determining where years fit.