Research study about self harm.

[Rob]

Hey everyone,

Below is an advertisement for a research project about self harm. If you are interested in taking part please complete the linked survey.

Do you or have you ever self-harmed?
Clicking on this link will take you to a survey for a research project being carried out at the University of Birmingham by a postgraduate psychology student looking at the psychological factors of self-harm. Please click here to be taken to further information where you can decide whether or not to take part by answering the survey, which will take 10-15 minutes to complete. If you feel uncomfortable answering any of the questions, you may leave the survey at any point.
https://lesweb2.bham.ac.uk/surveys/i...973578/lang/en

[Coffee.]

I've actually participated in and ran studies at my own university, so it was interesting to see a different perspective, particularly for psychology research in another country. I encourage all who qualify and are comfortable to do it.

[Philomath]

Completed.
Only question I have is why does question 2 about Self harm (the one that asks how old the person was when they started harming) only go down to age 16. I had to put 16 for that one because the age I was when I started harming was not listed. So i think that is inaccurate and may not make the results extremely accurate.

[bitesize]

^^ I agree, I'm sure plenty of SHers started at younger than 16, myself included.

For a university-based research study I found this a little messily put together.

[shinternetsurvey]

Regarding the survey thank you for participating in the survey. Due to University ethics my supervisor and I could not lower the age related questions lower than age 16. From personal experience I understand that it can begin before 16. Therefore I apologize this.

[Philomath]

I get what you are saying I just guess I do not understand. How does asking people when they started harming and having them choose an age under 16 break ethics if in order to complete the survey the people have to be over that age?
One other thing I was thinking about, for the education section, there were only options for the UK and some of us are from other countries and there was an other option but when choosing other on any of the questions, there is no box to explain what other is.
I'm not trying to be mean or criticize, I'm just making suggestions...

[bitesize]

^^I agree!! Not to be critical of course as the topic of the study is a very important one. But just regarding the age question surely the results will be slightly skewed if the lowest option is 16, and how would it be against ethics?? Just curious as I am a Psychology student too and I'll be doing my own research project in a few months.

[Coffee.]

It might be due to legal issues, yall. I know, from experience of doing research in sexual health and behavior, it's really difficult to get around ethical guidelines, particularly having to do with age. However, I do agree that this erases an entire experience, and skews results. I hope the researcher takes that into account when making generalizations about results.

[shinternetsurvey]

Originally Posted by Ignite

It might be due to legal issues, yall. I know, from experience of doing research in sexual health and behavior, it's really difficult to get around ethical guidelines, particularly having to do with age. However, I do agree that this erases an entire experience, and skews results. I hope the researcher takes that into account when making generalizations about results.

Due to the sensitivity of the subject and because of legal procedures from ethical guidelines I could not lower the age related answer options under 16.

[Rob]

Hello everybody,

Please find the abstract of the final report for this study below for those who are interested:

Correlates of Suicidality in Self-Injuring Populations

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore possible risk and protective correlates of suicidality amongst self-injuring individuals. Using self-reported survey responses from 323 self-injuring participants, a cross-sectional internet web-based design was employed to determine whether attachment, self-forgiveness and positive self-appraisals significantly predicted suicidality in self-injurers. Results indicated that dismissing attachment was positively associated with suicidality; emotion coping and support seeking positive self-appraisals negatively predicted suicidality, as did self-forgiveness. Findings indicate that the perceived ability to cope with emotions and gain support and the ability to self-forgive may protect against suicidality in self-injurers. Conversely the presence of dismissing attachment may increase the risk of suicidality. In the long term investigations such as this could better inform theory, assessment and treatment of suicidality in self-injurers. Replication of these results in a longitudinal design with more ethnically and age diverse samples and balance of gender is needed to strengthen the confidence in the present study’s findings and to further explore the relationship between these constructs and suicidality. In addition, studies establishing the importance of Attachment, Self-forgiveness and Positive self-appraisals constructs role in moderating the impact of risk on suicidality are needed to further delve into the relationship between these proposed constructs and suicidality in self-injurers.