Nonsuicidal self-injury and its relationship with family characteristics among adolescents in Izmit, Turkey

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between nonsuicidal self-injury and family functioning, and family characteristics. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the participants were given the sociodemographic data form and the Family Evaluation Scale. The sociodemographic data form was included questions about family characteristics like health status, marital status, educational level, smoking-alcohol-substance use of parents and parents' occupation. Family Evaluation Scale enables assessment of successes and failures of family functions in some areas like problem solving, communication, roles, emotional reaction capability, capacity of showing interest, behavior control, general functions. Scales were applied to 555 students of 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th grades from Izmit (Turkey) central county were included in this study. Results: The prevalence of nonsuicidal self-injury among young participants of this study was found 11.4%. Nonsuicidal self-injury was determined in 41 girls and 22 boys of total 63 adolescences. These rates are lower than other studies reviewed in the literature. The age at onset of nonsuicidal self-injury was 12.4 +/- 1.87 years. A significant difference was found between groups with and without nonsuicidal self-injury in family characteristics like alcohol use of father, important event experienced by the family in the last year and chronic disease in family. Also, a significant association was found between nonsuicidal self-injury and high score levels of family evaluation scale's all subscales. Conclusion: In studies reviewed in literature it was observed that most studies include high school students and very few community studies include the period of early and mid-adolescence. Considering the age of onset of behavior, findings show that determination of preventive measures or regenerative methods in terms of family functioning is important in preventing occurrence of nonsuicidal self-injury in adolescents or prevention of progression of this behavior.