title: The prevalence of deliberate self-harm and its relationships to trauma and dissociation among Iranian young adults.
abstract: This study aims to investigate the prevalence of deliberate self-harm and its relationships to childhood and recent trauma and different patterns of dissociative features. A total of 100 male and 100 female college students were administered a 58-item questionnaire designed to detect the extent of dissociation, deliberate self-harm, and trauma history. Participants with deliberate self-harm behaviors reported more traumatic experiences and dissociative features than participants without such behaviors. Furthermore, the prevalence of deliberate self-harm (i.e., 40.5%) was similar to previous studies on college student populations. However, and contrary to earlier research, deliberate self-harm was significantly more prevalent among men (48%) than women (33%). The findings support the notion that trauma, pathological dissociation, and depersonalization/derealization play important functional roles in self-harm behaviors. From this perspective, it is feasible to understand individuals who engage in self-harm as either escaping from uncomfortable dissociative states or experiencing an infra-psychological conflict in which one dissociative part of the self is being abusive toward another.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Engineering and Humanities , Islamic Azad University , Babol Branch, Babol , Iran.
authors.forename: Habib Niyaraq
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Nobakht
authors.affiliation: b Department of Health and Social Sciences , Molde University College , Molde , Norway.
authors.forename: Karl Yngvar
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Dale
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003861:Depersonalization / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Deliberate self-harm; depersonalization/derealization; dissociation; trauma