Page 92

GRANT

journal

ISSN 1805-062X, 1805-0638 (online), ETTN 072-11-00002-09-4

EUROPEAN GRANT PROJECTS | RESULTS | RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT | SCIENCE

the research showed that the financial situation in the family is
related to the occurrence of self-harm in a given adolescent (higher
rates of self-harm were observed in adolescents who were in a
household with lower financial conditions than the average).
Furthermore, it has been shown that a higher rate of self-harm is
also manifested in adolescents who come from a single-parent
family (living with only one parent). The importance of parental
attachment for adolescents has also been emphasized by experts
Wang, Zhang, & Chen (2019). The research took place in China and
the main focus was on adolescents whose single parent or both
parents are migrating. The highest rate of self-harm (its prevalence,
frequency, or severity) was shown by adolescents whose parents
migrated. High levels of self-harm also occurred in adolescents with
one migrant parent, in contrast to the comparison group, where
neither parent migrates. The study also demonstrated the importance
of a mother-father-child link that is preventive of self-harm.

Despite the amount of academic literature on factors explaining the
phenomenon of self-harm, Edmondson, Brennan, & House (2016)
recommend to conduct more studies that report personal accounts of
the non-suicidal reasons for self-harm offered by individuals who
have harmed themselves. As we can do nothing but agree, our study
focuses on the motivation of an individual to harm him- or herself
and, more specifically, we aim to identify potential differences
based on family circumstances (nuclear vs. single-parent family).
Review conducted by mentioned authors found many articles
describing reasons for self-harm that fitted the eight themes outlined
by Suyemoto (1998), Klonsky (2007), Klonsky & Glenn (2009) and
the related themes outlined by Nock & Prinstein (2004). Most
widely reasons researched were managing distress (affect
regulation) and self-harm as a means of exerting interpersonal
influence (including help-seeking), followed by punishment and
managing dissociation. Less frequently described but nonetheless
repeatedly endorsed were reasons to do with averting suicide,
sensation-seeking, defining personal boundaries and expressing or

coping with sexuality. According to Tisovičová (2007), self-harm is
a manifestation of the effort to emphasize one's personality, which
means that the individual tries to draw attention of the environment
and express his or her dissatisfaction. Carr-Gregg (2012) points to
the motivation of acting by another peer who is hurting himself and
the desire to try what the intentional self-harm will bring.

Thus, the main objective of the research is to identify the most
frequent reasons that lead to intentional self-harming behavior
among Slovak youth, separately in group of adolescent boys and
girls from nuclear and single-parent family.

METHOD

2.1

Participants

Anonymous data collection was attended by 400 respondents,
students of primary and secondary schools in Slovakia. The
selection of respondents took place occasionally and the
administration of the test battery was carried out with the help of
trained administrators. 165 questionnaires were excluded. Thus, data
from 235 respondents, who confirmed their experience with self-
harm and subsequently stated the reasons for this type of behavior,
were included in the statistical analysis. The research sample
consisted of young people aged 11 to 18 years (M = 15.22), of
whom 48.5% (N = 114) were boys and 51.5% (N = 121) girls.
67.2% (N = 158) of respondents lived in the complete family and
32.8% (N = 77) of respondents stated the type of single-parent
family.

2.2

Methods

To identify the experience with self-harming behavior in
adolescents, a modified version of the SHI questionnaire (Self-Harm
Inventory; Sansone & Sansone, 2010) has been used. The original
version of the SHI contains 22 questions dealing with the presence
of various forms of self-harm. Four items in our testing were
excluded as they were not suitable for the adolescents and the
questionnaire was adapted for data collection in the population of
young people in Slovakia. On the other hand, two items were added
to the questionnaire (Démuthová & Rojková, 2019).

In order to find out the reasons for self-harm in the respondents, the
second part of the ISAS questionnaire (Inventory of Statements
about Self-injury, Klonsky & Glenn, 2009) has been used. The
questionnaire identifies thirteen possible reasons (functions) of self-
harm. These include regulation of emotions, prevention of
dissociation or suicide, autonomy, interpersonal boundaries or
influence, pointing out distress, strengthening relationships with
peers, revenge, self-care, self-punishment, seeking excitement, and
toughness. Each of these thirteen areas includes 3 items (statements)
rated on a three-point scale, which means that the questionnaire
contains a total of 39 statements. Respondents who confirmed their
experience of self-harm, for example, indicated that when they hurt
themselves, they calmed down, punished, or thus released the
emotional pressure that had grown in them. Based on their
experience, they further indicated whether the statements applied to
them completely, somewhat or not at all.

RESULTS

In general, we were interested in the most common reasons for self-
harm in young people. The results of the descriptive analysis of the
first research question processed by the statistical program IBM
SPSS (The Statistical Package for Social Sciences) are presented in
Table 1. As the table shows, the most common reasons for self-harm
in young people were: "I express my anger at myself for being
incompetent or stupid" (N=140), "I am punishing myself by it" (N =
133), and "by this, I release the emotional pressure that has
increased in me" (N = 132). Based on these results, we can claim
that self-punishment, and the effort to regulate emotions are the
main reasons for self-harm in young people in our research sample.

Table 1. The most frequent reasons for self-harm in adolescents

Rank

Reason

… express my anger (Self-punishment)

140

… punishing myself (Self-punishment)

133

… release emotional pressure (Affect regulation)

132

Further, we divided the research group by sex and identified the
most common reasons for self-harm among adolescent boys and
girls. The reason "I express my anger at myself for being
incompetent and stupid" was the most common reason for self-harm
in boys (N = 68) as well as in girls (N = 72). Again, the reason "by
this, I release the emotional pressure that has increased in me" was
one of the most common causes of self-harm in boys (N = 63), as
well as in girls (N = 69). In the group of boys, another reason seems
to be very common: 66 boys claim that they do self-harm "to find
out whether I could endure pain", while in girls (N = 71), the second
most common reason for self-harm is "punishing myself".
Therefore, we can assume that there are similar reasons for self-
harm among boys and girls – those related to self-punishment and
efforts to regulate emotions. At the same time, we note a difference

Vol. 9, Issue 1