Deliberate self-harm behaviors in Chinese adolescents and young adults

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to describe the prevalence of deliberate self-harm (DSH) and to determine the socio-demographic, behavioral, and psychological correlates of DSH behaviors in Chinese adolescents and young adults in a representative sample of the general population. The data were obtained from an epidemiologic study involving adolescents and young adults from junior and senior schools and colleges located in eight provinces of China. A total of 17,622 cases were retained for analysis. The relationship between the explanatory variables with self-harm was analyzed using a Pearson χ (2) test and a multinomial logistic regression model. A total of 3,001 (17.0%) students reported that they had harmed themselves deliberately in the past 12 months. The act of DSH occurring 1 and >2 times accounted for 4.2% (742) and 12.8% (2,259) of all respondents, respectively. The most frequently reported form of DSH was self-hitting. If the reference category was No DSH, the findings indicated that family composition, father's education, perceived family economic status, cigarette use, perceived body image, and higher scores in depression scales were important concomitants of repeat-incidents of DSH. The students, in western areas, who were younger, reported that having unhealthy weight control behaviors, and alcohol use had a higher risk for both types of DSH. Regarding students of age 15-18 years perceived body image (too fat), having unhealthy weight control behaviors or a high level of depression symptoms demonstrated an elevated risk for repeat-incident DSH when single-incident DSH was used as the reference category, whereas the students in middle area reported family composition (both parents), education of the father (less than college) or alcohol use had a decreased risk for repeat-incident DSH. The results of this study suggest that both types of DSH are associated with other wide-ranging problems in the students' lives. Despite their common features, these phenomena also differed from each other. It is necessary to investigate the possible neurobiologic underpinnings of DSH within a longitudinal study to enhance the knowledge of this behavior.

Big Five personality traits in the occurrence and repetition of nonsuicidal self-injury among adolescents: The mediating effects of depressive symptoms

“…Overall, 20.4% of participants showed at least one incidence of NSSI in the past year, with girls being more likely than boys to engage in NSSI. These results are comparable with earlier studies with Chinese community adolescents (Wan, Hu, Hao, Sun, & Tao, 2011;You, Leung, & Fu, 2012;You, Leung, Fu, & Lai, 2011). Close examination of gender differences in the prevalence of each specific NSSI behavior revealed that girls were more likely to conduct self-cutting, carving, scratching skin, and biting, and boys were more likely to drip acid onto skin and scrub skin using bleach or cleaner.…”

Suicide and poverty in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review

“…However, where multivariate analysis was performed in two Indian studies, only null associations were found for value of livestock and value of agricultural produce amongst farmers 61 and for monthly household income. 56 Of the eleven studies on non-fatal SIB, six 35,41,42,48,57,65 using bivariate analysis reported a positive association and four 37,55,57,58 a null association. However, all studies 34,37,38,41,48,57,64 performing multivariate analysis found a positive association except one 34 which found a null association between perceived financial status and suicide attempts in China.…”

“…We assessed 29 (78%) studies to be of high [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] or acceptable [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] quality (Table 3). Eight studies [59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66] were of low quality due to problems with risk of bias: performance, attrition and detection bias (interrupted-time series); selection bias, unclear case definitions, detection bias, lack of adjustment for confounding factors (case-control studies); detection bias, lack of adjustment for confounding factors (cross sectional and ecological studies).…”

Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

“…Methods of self-harm include drug overdose, self-hitting, pinching, scratching, biting, self-cutting, burning, jumping from a high place, or self-poisoning (Yip, Ngan, & Lam, 2003 ). A study involving a large sample of adolescents in China (Wan, Hu, Hao, Sun, & Tao, 2011 ) showed that 17.0 % had harmed themselves in the past 12 months. The most common form of self-harm is self-hitting.…”