... Most of the existing studies focus on the description of the attitudes and experiences of diff erent types of populations, namely adolescents who self-harm (Batejan, Swenson, Jarvi, & Muehlenkamp, 2015;Klineberg, Kelly, Stansfeld, & Bhui, 2013;Rissanen, Kylmä, & Laukkanen, 2008), parents of adolescents who self-harm (Ferrey et al., 2016;Kelada, Whitlock, Hasking, & Melvin, 2016;McDonald, O'Brien, & Jackson, 2007;Oldershaw, Richards, Simic, & Schmidt, 2008;Rissanen, Kylmä, & Laukkanen, 2009), peers (Berger, Hasking & Martin, 2013, 2017Bresin et al., 2013), healthcare professionals (Karman, Kool, Poslawsky, & Van Meijel, 2015;McHale & Felton, 2010;Rai, Shepherd, & O'Boyle, 2019;Rees, Rapport, Thomas, John, & Snooks, 2014;Vine, Shawwhan-Akl, Maude, Jones, & Kimpton, 2017), counsellors (De Stefano, Atkins, Noble, & Heath, 2012;Fox, 2011;Long & Jenkins, 2010), or teachers (Berger, Hasking, & Reupert, 2014;Heath, Toste, & Beettam, 2007;Heath, Toste, Sornberger, & Wagner, 2011). However, there is still a general lack of knowledge concerning the social representations about the functions of deliberate self-harm, since a considerable part of research focused only on the attitudes towards selfharm. ...