8 September 2018 | NewScientist | 23Clare WilsonALARMING headlines suggest one
in four teenage girls in the UK are
self-harming, motivated by sexist
stereotypes and pressures to look
good in a selfie society. The truth may
not be as bleak as it first appears.
These stories come from a report
by UK charity The Children’s Society,
based on an ongoing survey of 11,000
children aged 14, called the Millennium
Cohort Study. Among the girls, 22 per
cent said they had self-harmed.
For boys it was 9 per cent.
But while the term self-harm
conjures images of teenagers cutting
themselves, that may, thankfully,
be only the most extreme end of
a broader spectrum. In this survey,
participants were merely asked if
they had “hurt themselves on
purpose in any way”.
Some could have answered yes
for things like punching a wall in
frustration or deliberately getting
falling-down drunk. Others could have
thought the question included mental
hurt – such as spending a miserable
evening stalking an ex on social media.
They needed to have done somethinglike that just once in the past year
for it to count.
Such self-destructive behaviour
would naturally be of concern to
parents, but wouldn’t be that unusual
for teenagers. Max Davie, a health
promotion officer for the UK’s Royal
College of Paediatrics and Child Health,
does believe that self-harm among
teens is somewhat on the rise –
but thinks the question in this survey
was not specific enough to reveal its
real prevalence.
The latest headlines join an ongoing
narrative about a mental health crisis
in today’s youth. Some blame cutbacksin social services, while others point
to a loosening of sexual norms putting
teens at risk. For those wary of new
technologies, it is social media or the
latest popular computer games.
But such reports also deserve
some scepticism. Claims of soaring
rates of depression are usually based
on surveys with very loose, non-medical criteria. Teenagers have
always been sad or anxious from time
to time. Thankfully, clinical depression
is still rare in this age group.
In fact, a different and regularly
repeated survey has found no change
in 11-to-15-year-olds’ happiness with
life as a whole between 1995 and- Nor did their satisfaction with
their appearance change, which makes
it odd to blame the selfie culture for
the apparent self-harm epidemic.
This survey, called Understanding
Society, even found a boost in
happiness with family and schoolwork
over that period. These more
optimistic findings were also in^
the latest Children’s Society report,
but were buried at the bottom of
their press release.
Davie thinks the rise in self-harm
may not be due to a rise in
unhappiness, but simply that this age
group now sees self-harm as a more
culturally acceptable way to express
anguish. “It may be that previously
people didn’t know that this was
something you could do. If people
are talking about something and
normalising it, it’s probably more
likely that their peers will do it.”
If that is the case, it is all the more
reason not to make self-harm seem
more common than it really is. ■
Need a listening ear? UK Samaritans:
116123 (samaritans.org). Visit bit.ly/
SuicideHelplines for hotlines and
websites for other countries.Are modern teens
hurting or happy?
ANALYSIS Self-har
SHESTOCK/GETTY“ The latest headlines join
an ongoing narrative
about a mental health
crisis in today’s youth”For more opinion articles, visit newscientist.com/opinion
Yet the problem with the
project is bigger than the waste of
time and money and the harmful
distortions imposed on other
missions. The deeper problem is
the form of thinking it represents.
NASA’s astronomy and robotic
exploration programmes have
achieved epic accomplishments
because they are purpose-driven.
In contrast, since Apollo ended,
NASA’s human space flight work
has been purpose-free. As a result,
accomplishments have been few.
The science programmes spend
money to do things. The human
space flight programme is doing
things to spend money.
The situation is ironic. With the
success of the Falcon Heavy rocket
that could send crew to the moon
and Mars, the US could be poised
for a deep space breakthrough.
The Lunar Orbit Tollbooth cash,
if spent on developing landers and
ascent vehicles, could enable a
return to the lunar surface within
four years and human missions to
Mars in eight. What is lacking is
intelligent direction. We will never
get to Mars if we allow our human
space flight programme to be run
as a random walk. QRobert Zubrin, an astronautical
engineer, is president of the Mars
Society, which advocates for a human
mission to the Red PlanetFoster) in Congress. There are
more than 200 lawyers. There are
more talk radio hosts in Congress
than physicists and chemists.
The time for signing polite
letters and waiting to be tapped
for an advisory role is over.
Scientists need to get involved
in electoral politics.
Voters want governance based
in facts and evidence, and who
better to lead that charge than
those who have spent their
careers in a role where there is
no room for “alternative facts”. ■Shaughnessy Naughton is founder
of 314 Action, which seeks to get
scientists into elected office in the US