Open AccessDepressive Symptoms among Self-Harming Adolescents
Author(s) -
Slávka Démuthová,
AUTHOR_ID,
Zuzana Rojkova,
AUTHOR_ID
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
lumen proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Conference proceedings
eISSN - 2601-2529
pISSN - 2601-2510
DOI - 10.18662/wlc2021/17
Subject(s) - depression (economics) , depressive symptoms , harm , causality (physics) , clinical psychology , psychology , correlation , psychiatry , medicine , cognition , social psychology , physics , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics , economics , macroeconomics
Self-harm is a common form of high-risk behaviour in adolescents. It is often linked to depression; however, the correlation between these two variables has scarcely been studied. The presented study on a sample of 1,117 adolescents aged from 11 to 19 (mean age 15.56) compares the occurrence of depressive symptoms (measured by the CDI questionnaire) in individuals who self-harm versus those who do not self-harm, it investigates whether there is a correlation between the intensity of self-harm (measured by a modified SHI questionnaire) and depressive symptoms on a sample of self-harming adolescents, as well as explores the specificities of the correlation in terms of the age and sex of the subjects. The results showed that the occurrence of depressive symptoms: 1/ is statistically significantly higher (p = 0.000) among self-harming individuals compared to non-self-harmers, particularly in female subjects, 2/ significantly correlates with the intensity of self-harming behaviour in the group of self-harmers (p = 0.000), and 3/ it decreases with age among self-harming female subjects. The conclusions point to a need for the clarification of the relationship between depressive symptoms and self-harming behaviour (presence and direction of causality) and to the consequences in clinical practice.