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Abstract
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Aim
This article reports an exploratory study that investigated the attitudes of counselling students towards self-harm.
Method
A total of 76 counselling students were presented with short scenarios describing an individual who engaged in self-cutting, self-poisoning and unspecified self-harm. Attitudes were measured using the Attitudes towards Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMIQ; Luty et al., 2006).
Results
Overall, counselling students demonstrated a positive response to self-harm. Significant differences in attitude according to type of self-harm were also evident. Participants were significantly less positive towards self-poisoning than self-cutting or unspecified self-harm. Attitudes towards self-cutting and unspecified self-harm were not differentiated.
Conclusions
Findings suggest counselling student attitudes towards self-harm are worthy of further investigation. Potential implications for counselling training, professional practice and stigma reduction are discussed.
Language: en |