Measuring Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and its Motivation Among Adolescents: Hungarian Adaptation of the Inventory of Statements About Self-Injury

Abstract

Background and aims: Lifetime prevalence of non-suicidal self-injury (e.g, direct cutting or hitting the own body) is estimated between 18 % and 40% in community adolescents samples. However, limited number of complex, non-suicidal self-injurious behavior screening questionnaires exist. Therefore, the main aim of our research was to introduce a detailed self-injury questionnaire, the Hungarian version ofthe Inventory of Statements About Self-Injury (ISAS-HU) into the Hungarian test system. Methods: High school students (N=1015; 66.1% girls (N=671); mean age was 16.81; SD=1.42) filled out questionnaires on emotion regulation, mental health aspects, and self-injurious behaviours. Results: Nearly 60% ofthe adolescents (58.8%; N=597) have never, while 41.2% (N=418) have alrea,dy enga.ged in self-harm at least once in their life. Thirty two percent of the whole sample (N=322) engaged in self-harm in the previous month. Girls are at one and a half times greater risk for self-harm than boys. Adolescents who have never engaged in self-harm enjoyed the best psychological health. We provide further descriptives of attitudinal components of self-harm behaviour. Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling, which allows cross-loadings of the items, strengthened the original two-factor structure of the second part of the ISAS-HU; an intrapersonal and an interpersonal function factor emerged with good reliability. Among girls intrapersonal functions of self-harm associated with poorer mental health and more maladaptive emotion regulation. Repetitive self-harmers, in comparison with occasional self-harmers, engaged in self-harm mainly because of intrapersonal motives. Conclusions: ISAS-HU is a psychomterically valid tool which can assess non-suicidal self-injury easily, quick and in its complexity.