title: Deliberate self-harm and psychological problems in young adolescents: evidence of a bidirectional relationship in girls.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to test the hypotheses that there is a bidirectional prospective relationship between mental health and deliberate self-harm, in the sense that (1) psychological problems are a risk factor for the development of self-harm; (2) self-harm is a risk factor for the development of psychological problems; and (3) the relative absence of psychological problems is a protective factor against the continued use of self-harm in adolescents who have started to harm themselves. This was studied in a community sample of 879 young adolescents by means of a 2-wave longitudinal design with a one-year interval, with self-harm measured by a nine-item version of the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory (DSHI-9r) and psychological problems by the self-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The hypothesis of bidirectional relationship between psychological problems and self-harm was supported among girls, but not among boys - although there was evidence of psychological problems as a risk factor of self-harm in boys, the converse was not the case. The relative absence of psychological problems was found to be a protective factor against self-harm only among boys, but not among girls. The results are discussed in terms of self-harm having a different role in the development of psychopathology among girls than among boys.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Lars-Gunnar.Lundh@psychology.lu.se
authors.forename: Lars-Gunnar
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Lundh
authors.forename: Margit
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wångby-Lundh
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bjärehed
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D012737:Sex Factors