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 53% of the goth teens had attempted to harm themselves and 47% had attempted suicide.
[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.