www.elsevier.com/locate/jado Journal of Adolescence Journal of Adolescence 26 (2003) 619–629 Staff knowledge and attitudes towards deliberate self-harm in adolescents Tanya Crawford a, *, Wendy Geraghty b , Karen Street b , Emily Simonoff a a Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’ Medical School and Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London, UK b Lewisham Child and Family Therapy Center, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, UK Received 23 September 2002; accepted 12 May 2003 Abstract Thisstudyinvestigatesknowledge,attitudesandtrainingneedsconcerningdeliberateself-harm(DSH)in adolescents,amongstavarietyofprofessionalsinvolvedintheassessmentandmanagementofadolescence whoself-harm.Aquestionnairesurveywascompletedby126healthprofessionalsworkingwithadolescents whoharmthemselves.Themainoutcomemeasureswereaknowledgemeasureandthreeattitudemeasures (generated using factor analysis). The mean percentage of correctly answered knowledge questions, across all professional groups, was 60%. With regard to knowlege, over three-quarters of participants were unawarethathomosexualyoungmenandthosewhohadbeensexuallyabusedareatgreaterriskofDSH, whilstonethirdofstaffwereunawarethatadolescentswhoself-harmareatincreasedriskofsuicide.Staff whofeltmoreeffectivefeltlessnegativetowardsthisgroupofpatients(B=0.21, p=0.03).Forty-twoper cent of the participants wanted further training in DSH amongst adolescents. r 2003TheAssociationforProfessionalsinServicesforAdolescents.PublishedbyElsevierLtd.Allrights reserved. 1. Introduction Deliberateself-harm(DSH)isaseriousandgrowingproblemamongstadolescents(Fergusson, Woodward,&Horwood,2000).DSHisadeliberate,self-initiated,andnon-fatalact,carriedout in the knowledge that it is potentially harmful. This includes self-poisoning or self-injury, irrespective of the apparent level of suicidal intention. The most common form of DSH is self- poisoning. (Hawton, Fagg, & Simkin, 1997). James and Hawton (1985) foundthatonly41%of ARTICLE IN PRESS *Corresponding author. Department of Child Psychiatry, Munro Center, 66, Snowsfields, London SE1 3SS, UK. Tel.: +44-207-378-3226; fax: +44-207-378-3243. E-mail address: tanya.crawford@kcl.ac.uk (T. Crawford). 0140-1971/$30.00 r 2003TheAssociationforProfessionalsinServicesforAdolescents.PublishedbyElsevierLtd.All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0140-1971(03)00060-5