Journal article
Peer-friendship networks and self-harm among adolescents from inner-city schools: a social network study
- Abstract:
- Peer-relationships are critically important for adolescent behavior, but how peer-friendship network composition and structure influence adolescent self-harm is less clear. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore the association between in-school peer-friendship networks, gender, and self-harm among inner-city adolescents. Participants were 2,203 adolescents (mean age = 12.5 years, SD = 1.0; 53% girls) attending inner-city south London schools. Each adolescent nominated friends within their school year to construct sociometric peerfriendship networks and reported on lifetime self-harm. Mixed-effects logistic regression was used to estimate the effects of a comprehensive array of peer-network metrics on self-harm in the sample overall and by gender. Having friends who report self-harm, network over-integration (bridging, popularity), and social isolation (network under-integration) increased odds of self-harm, while sociality and high friendship group density reduced odds. Odds ratios did not vary by gender. The findings indicate that peer-network composition, particularly if friends self-harm, and over- and under-integration in wider peer-networks, may influence early adolescent self-harm, among both boys and girls.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 1.2MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1007/s10964-025-02264-y
Authors
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Journal:
- Journal of Youth and Adolescence More from this journal
- Volume:
- 55
- Issue:
- 1
- Pages:
- 152–167
- Publication date:
- 2025-10-03
- Acceptance date:
- 2025-09-15
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1573-6601
- ISSN:
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0047-2891
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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2295520
- Local pid:
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pubs:2295520
- Deposit date:
-
2025-10-01
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Crudgington et al
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- ©2025 The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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