A new study led by Emily F. Liu, MPH, at the University of California, Berkeley has found deeply troubling trends. Over one in seven US adolescents engage in self-harm, a rate that is increasing sharply. Our study uses the Center for Data-Driven Reform’s Hospital Discharge Data for California, a longitudinal, urban, inpatient and emergency department-based dataset from 2005 to 2021. This study specifically focuses on the adolescent population aged 10 to 19 years. It’s a poster child example of what happens when you increase self-harm fatalities incidents over the years.
The research uncovers an alarming increase in rates of self-harm. They jumped from 191 injuries per 100,000 person-years in 2005 to 453.2 injuries per 100,000 person-years by 2021. Particularly alarming, though, is that this increase has been felt more by girls than boys over the last five years.
Demographic Disparities in Self-Harm Rates
As of 2021, the study concluded there were significant gaps in self-harm rates across racial and ethnic groups. Sex-specific injury rates were highest among females aged 15 to 19 from multiracial, White, and Black backgrounds. Their calculations recorded 1330.0, 1201.6, and 1069.7 injuries per 100,000 person-years for each category, respectively. In contrast, those teens who identified as Hispanic, American Indian, or Asian and Pacific Islander had lower rates of self-harm.
The study went even deeper by examining distinct age groups and genders. In 2005, American Indian/Alaska Native girls and boys aged 10–14 years had the highest rates of self-harm. By 2021, White girls in the same age bracket faced far greater injury prevalences. Meanwhile, at the new standard, they estimated 808.3 injuries per 100,000 person-years. The rate of self-harm injuries among multiracial boys age 10-14 was 127.6 injuries per 100,000 person-years.
Understanding the Trends Over Time
Through the past five years, the study used diagnostic codes to identify self-harm incidents among more than 231,000 patients. Remarkably, females accounted for an overwhelming 72.5% of the study’s participants. This information suggests that young women are at the greatest risk of harm from self-harm, requiring urgent action to improve their mental wellbeing.
The self-harm rate was the highest reported in 2021 for multiracial males aged 15–19 years, at 423.5 injuries per 100,000 person-years. The rate of injury among multiracial girls 10-14 years was alarming at 735.1 injuries/100,000 person-years. Such implementation findings highlight the importance of intentional and targeted interventions focused on this population.
“Caregivers, clinicians, and teachers should be aware of these self-harm patterns and support and advocate for adolescent mental health care,” – Emily F. Liu, MPH.
Implications for Mental Health Support
The alarming rates of self-harm underscore an immediate need for improved mental health care for teens. Since these trends indicate that some populations are more impacted than others, targeted approaches may be necessary to ensure we can deliver interventions that work most effectively.
Mental health professionals emphasize the importance of recognizing warning signs and fostering an environment where adolescents feel comfortable seeking help. Better education for the caregivers, educators, and health care providers who encounter youth at risk can be key to preventing these troubling trends of self-injury.
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