title: The Relationship Between Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and Family Functioning: Adolescent and Parent Perspectives.
abstract: We explored parent and adolescent reports of family functioning, how this differed if the parent was aware that their child self-injured, and how parental awareness of self-injury was related to self-injury frequency, self-injury severity, and help seeking. Participants were 117 parent-adolescent dyads, in 23 of which the adolescent self-injured. Adolescents who self-injured reported poorer family functioning than their parents, but parents who did not know about their child's self-injury reported similar functioning to parents whose children did not self-injure. Parents were more likely to know that their child self-injured when the behavior was severe and frequent. Help-seeking was more likely when parents knew about self-injury. Family-based interventions which emphasize perspective-taking could be used to effectively treat self-injury.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Monash University.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kelada
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology & Speech Pathology, Curtin University.
authors.forename: Penelope
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hasking
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Monash University.
authors.forename: Glenn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Melvin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005195:Family Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D000066505:Help-Seeking Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000523:psychology*