Recognising self-harm
What is self-harm?
Self-harm refers to instances of a person deliberately harming their body, regardless of the motive or suicidal intent. This might include:
- non-suicidal self-injury
- substance misuse
- overeating.
Intent sets self-harm apart from suicide and suicide attempts. A person can engage in self-harm where there is no suicidal intent, also known as non-suicidal self-harm, or non-suicidal self-injury. Alternatively, a person can engage in self-harm where the intended outcome is death, which is referred to as a suicide attempt. While self-harm and suicide are sometimes directly linked, such as in a suicide attempt, most people who engage in self-harm do so without intending to end their life.
While self-harm behaviours are more likely to occur during adolescence, national data suggests an increase in incidents among primary school aged children. Self-harm can be a maladaptive coping strategy used by children and young people. This highlights the importance of:
- proactively focusing on prevention and protective factors
- providing adults, including educators, health professionals and parents/carers, with relevant and helpful information about self-harm and suicidal behaviours to understand how to respond to children in a safe and supportive way.
Children under 12
All self-harming should be taken seriously regardless of the student’s age. However, the response required for children under 12 who are self-harming is different and requires increased sensitivity and compassion. Schools should seek support and guidance from Student Support Services or appropriately trained allied health professionals.
Signs of student self-harm and distress
Self-harm behaviours in children and young people are likely to be expressions of distress or maladaptive coping strategies because the student is experiencing emotions that they are unable to manage on their own. These expressions of distress can vary across year levels due to the different development ages and stages of students across the schooling years, and particularly in primary schools.
It is important not to dismiss or downplay self-harm behaviours in students. Self-harm is not simply an act of ‘attention seeking’.
Secondary school students who engage in self-harm will typically do so in private and go to great lengths to conceal any evidence of self-inflicted harm. For this reason, signs that someone is engaging in self-harm can be difficult to identify.
While adults may think primary school students are too young to self-harm, evidence indicates that they are capable of engaging in self-harm behaviours.
Depending on the age and developmental stage of the student, forms of self-harm or expressing distress can include:
- cutting
- head banging
- self-hitting
- severe scratching
- hair pulling
- interfering with wound healing (for example, picking at scabs)
- poisoning (for example, eating or drinking non-food items)
- running across the road recklessly
- overeating
- restricting food intake.
Understanding the wider range of behaviours that can constitute self-harm, such as self-hitting, picking a wound and risk-taking behaviour, may assist educators to correctly identify and act when a student engages in self-harm.
There may be other observable indicators that a child is distressed, including:
- challenges with emotional regulation, including difficulty calming down
- a sudden escalation in emotions and associated behaviours (for example, anger, signs of aggression)
- showing or reporting signs of anxiety, such as:
- frequent physical complaints (for example, tummy aches or headaches)
- lack of concentration
- being preoccupied
- isolating themselves or withdrawing
- a change in the ability of a child or young person to verbally express themselves (for example, unable to describe how they are feeling or why they did something, when they would typically be capable of doing so).
Many of these behaviours may be maladaptive behaviours and coping strategies in response to their experiences. This can impact the student’s ability to:
- concentrate
- feel good about themselves
- make safe decisions.
By looking at ways to respond to children and young people in distress through a trauma informed lens, we can see experiences of trauma can have an impact on a child or young person and their thoughts, feelings and body. A trauma informed lens helps to support response to these impacts. While it is not the role of the educator to unpack those experiences for a child or young person, keeping these understandings in mind can help shape the response to the child.
Contributing factors and protective factors
Contributing factors are characteristics that can increase the likelihood of a child or young person experiencing distress, while protective factors are environmental factors, situations, actions or efforts that reduce the likelihood of negative impacts from distress.
Resilience is often fostered through an interplay between protective and contributing factors.
Contributing factors that can increase the likelihood of a child or young person experiencing distress include:
- individual factors:
- age and stage of development
- cognitive development
- poor executive functioning skills
- inability to self-regulate
- maladaptive coping strategies
- anxiety
- depressive symptoms
- neurodiversity
- family factors:
- insecure attachment to the primary carer
- low parental monitoring
- family conflict
- family violence
- life events:
- lived or living experience of trauma
- adverse life events
- bereavement
- parental separation
- social factors:
- bullying
- isolation/not belonging
- lack of control
- low self-esteem.
Specific cohorts (including First Nations and LGBTIQA+ students) are more likely to experience abuse, discrimination, rejection and racism. These have a negative impact on wellbeing, can increase the risk of experiencing distress and may create a disproportionate risk of self-harm and suicide.
Many of these factors impact on students’ experiences of connection and sense of belonging. Building positive relationships and providing environments where students feel safe and secure can help them to manage distress.
Protective factors that can help to minimise self-harm include:
- engaging in meaningful activities that help promote a sense of purpose
- open communication about feelings and emotions
- presence of trusted supportive adults
- secure primary caregiver attachment
- good coping strategies and emotional regulation
- a sense of belonging
- positive and supportive relationships.
Focusing on protective factors can help to reduce self-harm behaviours. Protective factors contribute to improved mental health and wellbeing.
Schools can support students’ mental health by:
- fostering resilience
- encouraging the development of positive coping strategies
- supporting students to work through challenging or stressful situations
- establishing and maintaining a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing.
For more information, refer to Mental health and wellbeing and whole-school approaches.
Social contagion
Social contagion may occur when other children and young people are aware of, and are influenced by, their peer’s self-harming behaviour. This can be through directly witnessing the behaviour, seeing wounds or talking to a peer about their experience. Social contagion may involve some encouragement among peers to join in the behaviour to increase their sense of belonging to a group or to demonstrate empathy for a distressed friend.
Children and young people may be exposed to self-harm via peers, siblings, social media and the internet. Students, particularly in the upper primary and secondary school years, may be exposed to online content relating to self-harm. This may occur when they are seeking support or information and come across unfavourable content.
Vulnerable young people (those already experiencing mental health difficulties) are at increased risk of perceiving the self-injurious behaviour as an effective coping strategy, particularly as adolescents identify strongly with their peers during this period of development and growth.
Exposure to self-harm in a young person’s adolescence may increase the likelihood they will engage in self-harm behaviours. This could therefore be a factor for self-harm behaviours in younger children too. Exposure is not, however, a necessary factor or the only contributing factor.
Self-harm and suicide
Self-harm and suicide are sometimes directly linked, such as in the case of a suicide attempt. However, most people engage in self-harm without intending to end their life.
Determining intent requires a comprehensive risk assessment conducted by an appropriately trained staff member or professional (for example, mental health practitioner (MHP), staff trained in youth mental health, a Student Support Services (SSS) psychologist or social worker, a Doctors in Secondary Schools Program general practitioner (GP), a Secondary School Nurse, an external mental health professional, GP or hospital-based doctor or psychologist) to reveal what is underlying the self-harming behaviour and tasks required to ensure safety and restore wellbeing.
The importance of language
The language we use to talk about mental health, mental illness and suicide can contribute to stigma and impact a person’s willingness to engage with services and seek support. It is important for schools and school staff to use appropriate language when talking about mental health, mental ill health and suicide.
The National Communications Charter, launched in 2018 by Life in Mind, is an evidence-informed document to help guide the way mental health and suicide prevention sectors, governments, businesses, communities and individuals communicate about mental health and wellbeing, mental health concerns and suicide. Language guidance includes:
Be You provides educators with knowledge, tools and resources, including:
Reviewed 28 August 2025