title: Giving up self-injury: a comparison of everyday social and personal resources in past versus current self-injurers.
abstract: Self-injury represents a common yet perplexing set of behaviors, considered difficult to treat. The current study aimed to identify social and personal resources that may aid in cessation of self-injury. A community sample of 312 participants completed an online questionnaire. In line with Brown and Williams ( 2007 ), we compared all self-injurers (current and past) (106, 34%) with those who had never self-injured (206, 66%), and then current (38, 12.2%) with past self-injurers (68, 21.8%). Overall, self-injurers reported significantly lower levels of perceived social support, social connectedness, resilience, self-esteem, and life satisfaction compared to those with no such history. Further analysis indicated that family support, self-esteem, resilience, and satisfaction with life were significantly better for past compared to current self-injurers (at the p < 0.01 level). Logistic regression suggested that self-injurers could be distinguished from non self-injurers on Self-esteem and Social Connectedness. A further logistic regression suggested that past self-injurers could be distinguished from current self-injurers by their level of Resilience. The research has important preventive and clinical implications.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Cassandra
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rotolone
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012649:Self Concept; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires