Prevalence of Deliberate Self Harm and Attempted Suicide Within Contemporary Goth Youth Subculture: Longitudinal Cohort Study

This study investigated whether deliberate self-harm is associated with contemporary Goth youth subculture. A school & community based study of 1,258 young people aged 19 was done. Identification as belonging to the Goth subculture was strongly associated with lifetime self-harm & attempted suicide, with a prevalence of 53% & 47% respectively among the most highly identified group, & evidence for a dose-response relation. Adjusting for potential confounders did not significantly attentuate this association. Analysis of other youth subcultures showed this effect was primarly associated with Goth subculture. (9 refs.)