Female Self Injury and Suicide Attempts: Culturally Reinforced Techniques in Human Relations

This paper focuses on the problem of female excess in self-injury and suicide attempts. Biological/psychological variables linked to female self-destructive behaviors are enumerated and an alternative sociocultural explanation is suggested. Sex-role expectations are shown to be essential in explaining female self-injury and suicide attempts. Direction for solutions is mentioned in terms of research findings on self-actualization and on androgynous persons. 52 refs.