The Growing Wave of Teenage Self-Injury

Journalist:   Jane E. Brody
Date:   May 6, 2008
Summary:  Adolescents and young adults are deliberately injuring themselves at increasing rates.  This is a disturbing and hard to treat phenomenon.  Parents and other adults need to be more alert for signs of this behavior.  While there are no exact numbers it appears that about 15 percent of the general adolescent population has inflicted self-injury.  It’s believed that self-injury is often an emotional response not a suicidal one.  There are increasing opportunities for those who self-injure to talk with others via the internet.    
Relevance:    adolescence
Questions:
1.  What were your reactions when reading this article?  What do you think has contributed to this growing problem?
2.  What are your thoughts about the role of the internet and does that contribute to the increasing phenomenon?
Here is a link to the article.