Introduction
Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is defined as the deliberate destruction of body tissue without suicidal intent.1 2 NSSI often starts in adolescence1–3 and those with an earlier age of onset report greater frequency and methods of NSSI, NSSI-related hospital visits, and are more likely to have a suicide plan.4 The international lifetime prevalence rate of NSSI in adolescents is 17% (8.0–26.3),5 but most studies on rates and characteristics of adolescent NSSI are North American and European. Limited research mainly conducted in Hong Kong, and Taiwan and Guangdong reported a 12-month prevalence rate of NSSI in Chinese adolescents ranging from 17.0% to 33.6%.6–8 We are unaware of any prevalence studies in Chinese middle school students from Shanghai.
Martin and colleagues1 reported that self-injury in females peaked between 15 and 24 years of age and for males between 10 and 19 years of age. Gratz and colleagues9 extended research on the characteristics associated with NSSI by examining the ways in which gender, racial/ethnic background and school level interact. Their research found that the rates of NSSI varied as a function of gender, racial/ethnic background and school level, as well as their interactions with African-American boys reporting higher rates of NSSI behaviours than their peers with the difference more obvious in middle school.
In addition to rates of NSSI, researchers have also examined other characteristics of NSSI behaviour, such as type and location of self-injury. Numerous types of NSSI have been reported in studies including cutting, headbanging, hitting and biting.2 10 Beyond prevalence rates and methods, research on the body location of NSSI remains limited. A small number of studies have shown that the common injury locations involve the arms, legs and the head, with gender differences reported for type and location of injury among adolescents.3 10 For example, Hanania and colleagues3 investigated the characteristics of NSSI in a sample of 952 Jordanian adolescents (49.8% female) between the ages of 11 and 19 years and found that females were more likely than males to engage in cutting. Conversely, males were more likely than females to report self-punching; females were more likely to injure their arms and legs, whereas males were more likely to injure their jaw, face and genitals.
Surveying NSSI behaviour among middle school students in Shanghai can supplement the existing research on adolescents in China. Investigating self-injury in Shanghai students helps to further understand the characteristics of this behaviour in Chinese adolescents, and also extends the research on this behaviour beyond North American and European countries. In addition to the attention paid to the prevalence of NSSI behaviour, the methods and location of self-injury, the function and motivation of self-injury are also very important issues.
According to existing research, emotion regulation is the most common motivation for NSSI,1 followed by relationship influence and social control.10 Most research on the functions of NSSI was conducted on North American samples with few studies investigating Chinese adolescents. One exception is a study by You and colleagues11 who investigated the functions of NSSI in high school students in Hong Kong. They found that within the social influence function, ‘to feel more a part of a group’ received the highest mean endorsement, contradicting to the previous studies in western adolescent samples which found that this function was among the least endorsed.12 13 The function ‘to punish self’ had a low score in You et al’s study but was the second most important function after emotional regulation in many western samples.14 This led the authors to speculate that this inconsistency may be due to a cultural difference in attitude towards relationships and autonomy, such that western countries emphasise individualism while China emphasises collectivism.15 There is insufficient research evidence on the functions of NSSI in youth from mainland China.
Although it is well known that NSSI occurs in many patients with mental illness, there are few studies with middle school samples on the identification and evaluation of NSSI in youth using standard diagnostic tools. Understanding the function and mental health of students who engage in NSSI is necessary for prevention and early intervention efforts. The objective of this exploratory study was to determine the prevalence and features of NSSI among middle school students in Shanghai.