Suicide in music subcultures

Suicide in music subcultures refers to the relationship between members of a subculture of music fans and the act of suicide. Researchers have examined the relationship between Heavy metal subculture,^[1] Goth subculture,^[2] Emo subculture,^[3] and opera subculture^[4] and suicide.

Goth subculture

A study published on the British Medical Journal concluded that "identification as belonging to the Goth subculture [at some point in their lives] was the best predictor of self harm and attempted suicide [among young teens]", and that it was most possibly due to a selection mechanism (persons that wanted to harm themselves later identified as goths, thus raising the percentage of those persons who identify as goths).^[5] According to The Guardian, some goth teens are at more likely to harm themselves or attempt suicide. A medical journal study of 1,300 Scottish schoolchildren until their teen years found that the 53% of the goth teens had attempted to harm themselves and 47% had attempted suicide. The study found that the "correlation was stronger than any other predictor."^[6] The study was based on a sample of 15 teenagers who identified as goths, of which 8 had self-harmed by any method, 7 had self-harmed by cutting, scratching or scoring, and 7 had attempted suicide.^[7][8][9]

The authors held that most self-harm by teens was done before joining the subculture, and that joining the subculture would actually protect them and help them deal with distress in their lives.^[8][9] The authors insisted on the study being based on small numbers and on the need of replication to confirm the results.^[8][9] The study was criticized for using only a small sample of goth teens and not taking into account other influences and differences between types of goths ; by taking a study from a larger number of people.^[10]

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