Abstract
The purpose of this project is to determine whether parental inclusion in skills training groups within Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents (DBT-A) works as an intervention to help self-harming female adolescents. This is a systematic review of 16 articles related to adolescent girls and self-harm, DBT-A and the inclusion of parents in their skills training group. It provides a theoretical portion about the prevalence of girls engaging in deliberate self-harm (DSH) followed by background information around DBT and DBT-A. The research narratives show effectiveness of parental inclusion in treatment through different study designs. Studies include different settings and diagnostic criteria and includes parent perspectives. For clinical Social Work practice, DBT-A can be an important additional treatment variant to refer to. Given that society will be dealing with increasing numbers of self-harming adolescents in the future, aiming for outpatient treatment as opposed to inpatient, and decreasing the costs for the community, DBT-A may be the answer for many families to participate in.