This just in: 15-year-olds who dress exclusively in black, pierce themselves extensively and favor adornments that are ripped, spiky, raunchy or just-plain disturbing may be communicating that they are in psychological pain.
Adults can be a little slow on the uptake when it comes to reading an adolescent's state of mind. But new research from the United Kingdom is here to help: By the time they were 18, Britons who self-identified as "goth" at the age of 15 were three times more likely to be clinically depressed and five times more likely to cut, burn or intentionally inflict injury on themselves than were young people who did not identify with goth subculture.