Non-Suicidal Self-Injury the deliberate, direct destruction of body tissue without conscious suicidal intent is a relatively common occurrence for adolescents in high school, a new study suggests.
Led by researchers at The Miriam Hospital and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, nearly half of the teens studied endorsed some form of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) in the past year, most frequently biting self, cutting/carving skin, hitting self on purpose, and burning skin.
The research is published in the August 2007 issue of Psychological Medicine.
"The findings are important because it suggests that NSSI is more prevalent among adolescents in the general population than previously thought," says lead author Elizabeth Lloyd-Richardson, PhD, a psychologist at The Miriam Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
"If this is the case - it's essentially a wake-up call to take better notice of these behaviors in the community and learn how to help teens manage stress without harming themselves," adds Lloyd-Richardson.
Researchers decided to explore the frequency and breadth of NSSI engaged in by teens in the community because little is known about self-harming behavior in this particular population.
"Although NSSI is commonly encountered in inpatient and outpatient psychiatric and other institutionalized settings, little research has looked at NSSI in community samples," says Lloyd-Richardson.
A total of 633 high school students (grades 9-12) from schools in the southern and midwestern United States voluntarily and anonymously participated in the study by completing a survey administered by the researchers. The survey asked the participants whether they purposefully engaged in 11 different NSSI behaviors in the past year, and if so, the frequency of occurrence. In addition, the survey assessed the motivations for engaging in NSSI behavior.
"We were surprised to find that 46 percent of the teens in the study reported injuring themselves in the past year on multiple occasions," says Lloyd-Richardson.
Furthermore, 60 percent of these (or 28 percent of the entire sample) endorsed moderate/severe forms of NSSI including cutting skin, burning skin, giving self a tattoo, scraping skin, or using a pencil to erase skin.
The researchers note it was important to distinguish between minor and moderate/severe forms of self-injury, since severe forms of NSSI may be predictive of more serious outcomes. Minor forms of NSSI consisted of behaviors such as pulling out hair, biting self, or picking at areas of the body to the point of drawing blood. Moderate/severe self-injurers were more likely than minor self-injurers to report a history of psychiatric treatment and hospitalizations, suicide attempt, and current suicide ideation.
Results from the study also indicated that the most common reasons teens in the study engaged in NSSI included "To get control of a situation", "To stop bad feelings", and "To try and get a reaction from someone."