Teenagers now communicate predominantly in a digital environment, so parents should consider whether their children are victims of cyberbullying or digital self-harm.
What is digital self-harm?
Digital Self-Harm is a phenomenon in which a teenager anonymously posts offensive or compromising material about himself on the Internet. He can create fake social media accounts and use them to cyberbully himself.
Digital self-harm is a growing problem among teenagers. In a 2019 study of more than 4,000 teens aged 12 to 17 in the US, 9% of teens reported that they anonymously posted some kind of obscene content about themselves online. It should be noted that in 2017 this figure was 6%.
There were also notable differences in sexual orientation and age, with 15.5% of non-heterosexual adolescents anonymously posting offensive material about themselves, compared to 8% for heterosexual adolescents. Also, 14-year-olds were more likely to engage in digital self-harm than 17-year-olds.
Why do teenagers harm themselves?
A small study conducted in 2011-2012 by Elisabeth Englander, Ph.D. found that 9% of 617 people surveyed admitted to digitally harming themselves. And in Englander's larger study, the rate was 13% for men and 8% for women.
According to Englander, the reasons for this behavior are:
draw attention to yourself;
prove that they can withstand cyberbullying;
attract the attention of adults;
make others worry about them;
make fun of someone else
purposefully insulting another person in order to create enmity.
Some teens thus seek outside support by posting negative comments and messages. When you are struggling with emotional issues, it may be difficult for you to ask for help yourself, but when others see this purposeful behavior, they will step in and help.
It is important to remember that every child is different and faces their own challenges. However, researchers Soengkoeng and Moustafa divided the causes of digital self-harm into 3 types to provide a framework for understanding the behavior:
Social development: a teenager determines whether friends will stand up for him, or he wants to prove his psychological resistance to online insults;
Self-interest: seeking other people's sympathy or personal entertainment;
Displaying negative emotions: This may be related to mental health struggles or specific “triggers” such as bullying and bullying.
Like various forms of physical abuse, digital self-harm is an inappropriate and potentially dangerous way to deal with symptoms of depression and other feelings of pain and frustration. This new form of self-hatred among teenagers is hard to detect and hard to fight.
Forms of digital self-harm
By itself, understandable self-harm can be associated with:
poor coping skills;
the habit of hiding or suppressing emotions;
inability to cope with feelings of stress;
way to get rid of emotional pain.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), self-harm stimulates the body to release pain-reducing hormones, leading to a rapid mood boost. The same feeling occurs with physical pain, such as cuts.
What is a self-harm tracker?
A self-harm tracker is a tool (digital or physical) that helps people track their emotions, triggers, and urges to self-harm. It also encourages the use of coping strategies that can lead to self-harm.
Teens can use the app or create their own tracker to track their mood and find ways to deal with negative emotions. The app may suggest breathing or other relaxation exercises to shift focus from self-harm to self-awareness.
How to help a victim of self-harm?
How can parents prevent this?
It is important to focus on the causes of a teenager's destructive behavior.
A teenager who wants to attract the attention of their peers may lower their self-esteem and social interaction.
A teenager who wants to get the attention of adults or make others worry about themselves may purposefully seek low self-esteem or weaken their will on the part of their peers.
The only way to find out the true cause of the behavior is to have a frank conversation with the child and create a safe environment for dealing with difficult problems.
Register on social networks
Teenagers need independence and use social media to communicate with their peers. If a parent constantly monitors a child's social media, they may create separate accounts to avoid monitoring the parent. However, children can make mistakes.
Instead of checking your teen's phone every night, talk about what's going on. If you notice a negative comment, check the account it was sent from and ask your child about it. Explain why you think this is extremely negative and give him the opportunity to share his feelings about it.
Talk about how their peers also use social media, and whether your child feels that some group chats or activity groups are set up without their input.
Very often social networks are not given enough time. Parents once explain the rules of communication in social networks, and never return to this topic. However, a teenager needs frequent conversations to talk about their experiences using social media and ask for help if they have been cyberbullied.
Don't judge the child
There is no definite cause for self-harm. Some do it out of curiosity, while others use it as a cry for help. If you find that your child is engaging in digital self-harm, remain calm. Do not deprive him of all technology, but instead just talk to a teenager.
Find out the reasons for this behavior by asking open-ended questions:
“ How did you feel when you posted these messages?”
How did others react?
"How did you feel after you did it?"
are all questions that can help a teenager deal with a situation without judgment or criticism.
Show your teenager who can support him
Due to constant online communication, teenagers feel isolated from live conversations. Building a strong support system helps children feel less alone and makes them feel like part of a healthy community.
Find out from your child which of his friends he trusts. Also tell him about teachers, coaches, school psychologists and other adults you trust and who can provide support in difficult times.
Get professional help
Self-harm and depression are closely associated with suicidal thoughts. However, more research is needed to better understand the goals and causes of adolescent self-harm.
Psychotherapy with a licensed professional can help a child uncover the emotions and triggers behind these behaviors and learn how to deal with digital self-harm in the future.
Explain the importance of sleep
A 2021 study by Semenza et al found that lack of sleep and signs of depression are associated with increased self-harm involvement in high school students in Florida. This analysis of more than 9,000 teenagers found that even one extra hour of sleep reduced digital self-harm by 6%. This serves as a basis for educating adolescents about the importance of sleep hygiene and creating appropriate sleep patterns.
Conclusion
Digital self-harm is a growing problem among teenagers who spend most of their time online. Some of them became a victim of the Self-Harm phenomenon against their will, while others solve internal psychological problems in this way. In any case, such destructive behavior is not beneficial and requires support from parents or psychologists. In this article, we talked about how you can help your child and prevent him from self-harm in the future.