title: Nonsuicidal self-injury among adolescents: a training priority for primary care providers.
abstract: Primary care providers were surveyed to determine how prepared they feel to address nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) among adolescents, their interest in training on NSSI, and factors associated with routinely asking about NSSI when providing health supervision. Participants included family medicine physicians (n = 260), pediatricians (n = 127), family nurse practitioners (n = 96), and pediatric nurse practitioners (n = 54). Almost 50% felt unprepared to address NSSI, and over 70% wanted training in this area. Overall, relative to other areas of mental health care, clinicians felt least prepared to address and wanted more training on NSSI. Just 27% reported they routinely inquired about NSSI during health supervision. Factors associated with routinely asking about NSSI were identifying as female (OR = 2.37; 95% CI = 1.25-4.49), feeling better prepared to address NSSI (OR = 1.51; 95% CI = 1.04-2.20), and more frequently using a psychosocial interview to identify adolescents in distress (OR = 1.23; 95% CI = 1.02-1.48). Teaching clinicians to assess NSSI within a psychosocial interview may increase screening for and identification of the behavior among adolescents in primary care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. taliaferrol@health.missouri.edu
authors.forename: Lindsay A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Taliaferro
authors.forename: Jennifer J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Muehlenkamp
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hetler
authors.forename: Glenace
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Edwall
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: Iris W
authors.initials: IW
authors.lastname: Borowsky
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010820:Physicians; D011320:Primary Health Care; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires