Online support groups for young women with self-harming behaviours: understanding the elaborative functions of the experience

Abstract

Recent studies show an increase in self-harming behaviour among adolescents and young people, who often require online psychological support. This trend has produced an increase in studies and online psychological interventions. As of today, however, online support groups for self-harmers are still under-examined. Therefore, within a European project, we collected the discussions of four groups for young people with self-harming behaviours and analysed them by using a software for automatic qualitative text analysis. In particular, we focused on the themes discussed, and how these were discursively organized by the members in order to comprehend the psychodynamic functions promoted by each group. Four main themes and three sense vectors emerged. Online support groups with young women who self-harm produce some elaborative functions: the container of anguish, the emotion-regulation and the meaning-making. Clinical implications of online support groups for young people with self-harming behaviours will be discussed.

Keywords

• self-harming behaviour
• group dynamics
• gender issue
• qualitative research.