Social representations about the functions of deliberate self‐harm: Adolescents and parents

Abstract

Introduction:The understanding of the social representations about the functions of deliberate self-harm can be an important factor for the comprehension of this phenomenon. Nonetheless, only a few studies focused on this topic and specifically on the social representations from adolescents with and without a history of deliberate self-harm and their parents. Methods: This article presents two studies that analysed these representations. Study 1 compared the social representations from 411 Portuguese adolescents (219 females and 192 males, aged 12-19 years), from which 109 reported having a history of deliberate self-harm. Study 2 focused on the comparison of the social representations from 471 parents (265 mothers and 206 fathers, aged 33-62 years) of Portuguese adolescents. Of the parents in Study 2, 120 had children with a history of deliberate self-harm. Results:In Study 1, adolescents without a history of deliberate self-harm perceived most interpersonal functions as more relevant than adolescents with a history of these behaviours, while adolescents with a history of deliberate self-harm emphasized one intrapersonal function. In Study 2, no differences were found between parents of adolescents with and without a history of deliberate self-harm. However, results revealed differences between the representations of mothers and fathers in several intrapersonal functions. Conclusions: This research provides important insight regarding the social representations about the functions of deliberate self-harm from adolescents with and without a reported history of these behaviours and their parents. The impact for clinical intervention and prevention programs is discussed.

Adolescents’ Perceptions About Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Attempts

“…Likewise, in our results, adolescents without a history of NSSI, SI and SA tended to associate negative judgments and stereotypes with these phenomena, using terms such as "Stupidity", "Cowardice" and "Ridiculous". These results are somewhat in accordance with previous research indicating that stereotypical discourses and stigma are common in the context of STBs (Duarte et al, 2019c;Gouveia-Pereira, & Sampaio, 2019;Fortune et al, 2008;Hollinger, 2016). Regarding the dimension of Self-Injurious Methods, our results suggest that the perceptions of adolescents without a history of NSSI, SI and SA give greater emphasis to the physical or behavioral engagement in self-aggressive methods.…”

“…NSSI serves a variety of psychological functions, namely intrapersonal (e.g., to escape from aversive states, or generate positive feelings) or interpersonal (e.g., to access help, or to escape from negative social situations) functions (Klonsky, 2007;Nock & Prinstein, 2004). Studies that focused on the perceptions about these functions concluded that individuals without a history of NSSI tend to emphasize interpersonal functions more than those with a history of these behaviors, while their views regarding intrapersonal functions remain similar (Batejan et al, 2015;Duarte, et al, 2019c).…”

“…It is also important to comprehend whether these perceptions change according to the lived experiences of young people with NSSI and STBs (Grimmond et al, 2019). For instance, previous studies have shown that adolescents with and without a history of deliberate self-harm reveal different representations regarding the functions of these behaviors (Bresin et al, 2013;Duarte et al, 2019b;Duarte et al, 2019c), which indicates that experience influences how this phenomenon is represented. Other studies have found that a more permissive and accepting attitude towards suicide may itself be a risk factor for STBs (Arnautovska & Grad, 2010;Hollinger, 2016;Joe et al, 2007), which underlines the importance of assessing these perceptions.…”

Knowledge and practices of Primary Care professionals on diabetic neuropathy: study of social representations

“…Being a strong field of interest in social psychology, centered on the domain of science, TSR fulfills a behavioral functionality, based on the understanding of individuals on topics that affect their daily lives (17)(18) . In view of this, SR have a practical objective that implies actions, as evidenced in different researches (23)(24)(25)29) , developed, also, in the international scope (36)(37) .…”

Exploring Working Memory, Self-Criticism, and Rumination as Factors Related to Self-Harm

“…A validated assessment to measure SH is a necessary foundation for more accurate study of antecedents of self-harming behavior. While the current study assessed for SH, the use of a validated SH scale such as the Self-Harm Inventory (SHI; Agustin et al, 2019) or the Deliberate SH Inventory (Duarte et al, 2019) would have strengthened the current methodology. Also, a convenience sample was used, and there was a very low base rate of self-harm; thus, a larger more diverse sample with current self-harm population would lend more power to the analysis.…”