Editing Self-harm (section)

===Gender differences===

Aggregated research has found no difference in the prevalence of self-harm between men and women.<ref name=kerr2010/> This contrasts with previous studies, which suggested that up to four times as many females as males have direct experience of self-harm,<ref name="fox_hawton"/> which many had argued was rather the result of data collection biases.{{sfn|Bowen|John|2001|p=361}}

The [[WHO]]/EURO Multicentre Study of Suicide, established in 1989, demonstrated that, for each age group, the female rate of self-harm exceeded that of the males, with the highest rate among females in the 13–24 age group and the highest rate among males in the 12–34 age group. However, this discrepancy has been known to vary significantly depending upon population and methodological criteria, consistent with wide-ranging uncertainties in gathering and interpreting data regarding rates of self-harm in general.<ref>{{cite web |vauthors=O'Brien A |title=Women and Parasuicide: a Literature Review |publisher=Women's Health Council |url=http://www.whc.ie/publications/reports_parasuicide.html |access-date=2008-05-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080428132657/http://www.whc.ie/publications/reports_parasuicide.html |archive-date=April 28, 2008}}</ref> Such problems have sometimes been the focus of criticism in the context of broader psychosocial interpretation. For example, feminist author Barbara Brickman has speculated that reported gender differences in rates of self-harm are due to deliberate socially biased methodological and sampling errors, directly blaming medical discourse for pathologising the female.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Brickman BJ |year=2004 |title='Delicate' Cutters: Gendered Self-mutilation and Attractive Flesh in Medical Discourse |journal=Body and Society |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=87–111 |s2cid=145191075 |doi=10.1177/1357034X04047857}}</ref>

This gender discrepancy is often distorted in specific populations where rates of self-harm are inordinately high, which may have implications on the significance and interpretation of psychosocial factors other than gender. A study in 2003 found an extremely high prevalence of self-harm among 428 homeless and runaway youths (aged 16–19) with 72% of males and 66% of females reporting a history of self-harm.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Tyler KA, Whitbeck LB, Hoyt DR, Johnson KD |year=2003 |title=Self Mutilation and Homeless Youth: The Role of Family Abuse, Street Experiences, and Mental Disorders |journal=Journal of Research on Adolescence |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=457–474 |doi=10.1046/j.1532-7795.2003.01304003.x |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub/37}}</ref> However, in 2008, a study of young people and self-harm saw the gender gap widen in the opposite direction, with 32% of young females, and 22% of young males admitting to self-harm.<ref name=affinity08>{{citation |publisher=Affinity Healthcare |year=2008 |title=New survey reveals almost one in three young females have tried to self-harm |url=http://www.affinityhealth.co.uk/pdf/SHS.pdf |access-date=2009-12-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201220154/http://www.affinityhealth.co.uk/pdf/SHS.pdf |archive-date=2008-12-01}}</ref> Studies also indicate that males who self-harm may also be at [[Gender differences in suicide|a greater risk of completing suicide]].<ref name=Hawton_BMJ_03/>

There does not appear to be a difference in motivation for self-harm in adolescent males and females. Triggering factors such as low self-esteem and having friends and family members who self-harm are also common between both males and females.<ref name="Rodham05"/> One limited study found that, among those young individuals who do self-harm, both genders are just as equally likely to use the method of skin-cutting.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Marchetto MJ |title=Repetitive skin-cutting: Parental bonding, personality and gender |journal=Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice |volume=79 |issue=3 |date=September 2006 |pages=445–459(15) |doi=10.1348/147608305X69795 |doi-access=free |pmid=16945201}}</ref> However, females who self-cut are more likely than males to explain their self-harm episode by saying that they had wanted to punish themselves. In New Zealand, more females are hospitalized for intentional self-harm than males. Females more commonly choose methods such as self-poisoning that generally are not fatal, but still serious enough to require hospitalization.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.nzhis.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesns/323?Open |title=Hospitalisation for intentional self-harm |publisher=New Zealand Health Information Service |access-date=2008-05-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015044544/http://www.nzhis.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesns/323?Open |archive-date=October 15, 2008}}</ref>