<br /><br />Goth Youths Prone to Suicide Attempts and Self-Mutilation

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Tuesday, April 18

Goth Youths Prone to Suicide Attempts and Self-Mutilation

You've got to love when academia and journalism collide to create...utter nonsense:

GLASGOW, Scotland, April 14 - The rate of suicide attempts and self-mutilation-is high among those in the Goth youth subculture, researchers here reported.

More than half of 19-year-olds who self-identified as Goth reported self-harming behavior, and nearly half reported a suicide attempt, said Robert Young, a research associate at the University of Glasgow.

But whether participation in Goth culture leads to self-destructive behavior or whether adolescents with those tendencies gravitate to Goth is not clear, Young and colleagues said online today in BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal.

Goth is a subgenre of punk culture characterized by "a dark and sinister aesthetic, with aficionados conspicuous by their range of distinctive clothing and makeup and tastes in music," the investigators said. There is a Goth subculture in the U.S., reportedly inspired by fantasy games such as Dungeons and Dragon. [MORE]

Labels: gaming news