Girls self-harming at much higher rates than boys (New Zealand)

A researcher in New Zealand who surveyed 387 teens, 84 of whom said they were self-harmers, found some unexpected results:

"Approximately 23 per cent of self-harming kids had harmed in front of other people, and nearly 12 per cent had actually harmed in conjunction with another person, so they had harmed together. I didn't expect to see those kinds of figures."

This also defied the belief that self-harm happens in secrecy – while the girls reported they needed high-levels of secrecy, their behaviour showed otherwise, and people knew they self-harmed. However, the secrecy was more in relation to parents and peers than to friends.

Results showed there was no single reason for self-harm, but that underlying beliefs of vulnerability and low levels of parent influence were more common among self-harming girls. The tendency to dismiss socially-motivated self-harm as attention seeking is also not justified as there were always underlying deeper emotional problems attached. 

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-12-girls-self-harming-higher-boys.html