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June 11, 2008Frequent self-cutting linked to risky sexual behavior in teens |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Teens who repeatedly cut themselves are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, increasing their chances of possibly contracting HIV, according to a study in the June issue of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Researchers from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center in Providence, R.I. report that frequent self-cutters -- teens who have cut themselves more than three times -- used condoms less consistently, were more likely to share cutting instruments, and had less self-restraint. The study is the first to examine whether these teens engage in the same level of risk behaviors as those who've only experimented with cutting once or twice. "This study sheds some much-needed light on the relationship between frequency of self-cutting and sexual risk, which could prove critical, given the rising rates of self-injury among adolescents," says lead author Larry K. Brown, M.D., of the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center (BHCRC). "The associations between frequent cutting, sexual risk and low self-restraint provide clues to the forces that underlie this repeated behavior and point us in the right direction for future research to better understand this troubling and self-destructive phenomenon," adds Brown, who's also a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Nearly three-quarters of these frequent cutters were teenage girls but more than a quarter were non-white -- a surprising finding, given the study population. Bradley Hospital, located in Providence, R.I., is a teaching hospital for The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and ranks in the top third of private hospitals receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health.
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