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    Has cutting become cool? : Normalising, social influence and socially-motivated deliberate self-harm in adolescent girls : a research project presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealan
    (Massey University, 2013) James, Shelley Anika
    The literature focusing on deliberate self-harm (DSH) has grown exponentially over the last decade. The most commonly understood reasons for DSH are based on distress relief and attenuation of emotional numbness. However, few studies have explored the social aspects of DSH. With the advent of some youth subcultures where DSH appears to be routine, the possibility arises that DSH may have become a normalised, social behaviour which is influenced by peers and which may not always be rooted in underlying psychopathology, such as borderline personality disorder (BPD), or it may derive from a somewhat different pattern of underlying psychopathology than that which is usually found among those who engage in DSH. This study aimed to explore the differences between self-harming and non-self-harming adolescent girls, and between girls who self-harm for social reasons and those who endorse other reasons for DSH, in terms of social influence, underlying psychopathology and normalising of DSH. Participants were 387 adolescent girls (303 non-self-harmers and 84 self-harmers) from schools in the greater Auckland area. Results showed that socially-motivated selfharmers were more susceptible to peer pressure and endorsed higher levels of normalisation of DSH than their counterparts, although overall levels of normalisation were low. However, those who endorsed social reasons for harm did not do so exclusively and were just as likely to endorse emotional reasons. Social harmers did not differ from other harmers in terms of psychological problems but indicated that the impact of their problems was less. When compared to non-self-harmers, the selfharming girls scored higher in peer influence and lower in parent influence, and also scored higher on measures of psychopathology. Clinical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.
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    A girls' eye view of aggressive adolescent female behaviour : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education, Massey University
    (Massey University, 2010) Arnott, Rosemary M
    This thesis challenges media claims that adolescent girls in New Zealand are becoming more aggressive and are therefore behaving like boys. Most early studies of aggression ignored girls entirely or presented them as a subset of boys. Although later studies did address issues around girls’ aggressive behaviour, these were largely focused on adults’ views of girls’ relational or social aggression. This doctoral study therefore used a small case study to explore adolescent aggression from the perspective of six adolescent girls whose behaviour had been described by their schools as aggressive. The girls’ accounts of their experiences and beliefs about gender-specific aggression were gathered via a series of individual conversational interviews, and initially analysed through the theoretical perspective of role theory and psychological perspectives on aggression. However, as the study progressed, the limitations of that approach became apparent and the girls’ transcripts were revisited via the lens of poststructural theory, using the tools of discourse analysis. The study found that these girls’ behaviours and beliefs did not fit the description of severe adolescent female aggression as described in the literature. Nor did the risk factors most commonly associated with aggression at adolescence appear to have affected them. Conversely, it would appear that their physicality influenced how they positioned themselves and how others positioned them; as “sporty girls”, “tomboys”, “loving daughters and siblings”, or as “righteous aggressors”. Their behaviours frequently challenged the dominant discourse of conventional schoolgirls. None of them thought that girls were becoming more aggressive and all stated that girls could behave how they wanted without being labelled de facto boys. This study was limited in terms of the number of participants and the range of cultures represented, therefore no generalisations can be drawn from it. Nevertheless, it does have some important implications for policy makers and practitioners: particularly that interactions of culture, class and gender impact on the way that individuals constitute themselves and others. Interpretations of behaviour are determined by the discursive context and the experiences and belief systems of both “actor” and “audience”.