Barely surprising news now, from a study by a research team at Glasgow University who say that young people who become Goths are more likely to commit suicide or attempt self harm than other youths. The researchers, who describe Goth as a subgenre of Punk "with a dark and sinister aesthetic, with aficionados conspicuous by their range of distinctive clothing and makeup and tastes in music," studied 1,258 young people and their links to various youth cultures, and though other subcultures were associated with a degree of self harm, Goths were found to be the most likely to hurt themselves. Head researcher Robert Young said "although only fairly small numbers of young people identify themselves as belonging to the Goth subculture, rates of self-harm and attempted suicide are very high among this group."
However, the findings of the report, again unsurprisingly, do not suggest that it's being a Goth causes the instability, more that being unstable can cause, er, Gothism. Young continued: "One common suggestion is they may be copying subcultural icons or peers. But since our study found that more reported self-harm before, rather than after, becoming a Goth, this suggests that young people with a tendency to self-harm are attracted to the Goth subculture."