General public's attitudes towards people who self-harm: Perceived dangerousness and desired social distance

Abstract

Public attitudes towards self-harm are critically important, yet relatively unexplored. They can moderate or further exacerbate social and emotional difficulties that instigated initial self-harming episodes and considerably influence help-seeking behaviour. Participants from the general public (N = 109) answered a repeated measures self-report questionnaire that assessed desired social distance and perceived dangerousness towards individuals depicted in eight hypothetical vignettes, which varied between gender (male, female), presence of self-harm (no, yes) and self-harm intent (without suicidal intent, suicidal intent, ambivalent intent). Regarding desired social distance, evidence was identified to suggest that people who engage in self-harm without suicidal intent are perceived more negatively than individuals who do not have a history of self-harm (p < .001, d = 1.55). Numerous factors were identified to further adversely affect desired social distance from individuals who engage in self-harming behaviour. Males tended to have more negative attitudes towards people who self-harmed (p = .015, d = .48) and both genders displayed more negative attitudes towards male self-harmers (p < .001, d = .55). Both males (p = .004, d = .57) and females (p < .001, d = 1.31) who indicated suicidal intent received more negative responses than those who self-harmed without suicidal intent. Overall, perceptions of dangerousness were positively correlated with desired social distance (r = .36, p = < .001), however, gender and intent-specific attitudes contributed conflicting evidence to this relationship. These findings provide foundations for research into public attitudes towards individuals who self-harm, which could potentially inform public awareness campaigns.