It is also within this context that our study found a substantial overlap between reporting self-harm and also reporting suicide attempts. In our study, among those who reported self-harm, 38.2% had also attempted suicide in the past year. Researchers have sought to differentiate between suicidal and non-suicidal self-harm [26]. However, the overlap of self-reported self-harm and suicidal behaviors indicated among participants in our study, raises more questions about the “comorbidity” of these behaviors as well as the underlying health issues, past experiences, and limited coping strategies including impulsivity. These findings are also corroborated by previous research documenting associations between self-harm behavior, poor emotion regulation, and poor communication skills [30,32]. These deficits may in turn exacerbate prior violent experiences and further increase the psychosocial disadvantage experienced by these youth. Our study also found that youth who had parental support was less likely to report both self-harm and suicidal behaviors. As such, increasing social support for these youth is an important priority.
