The types of deliberate self-harm and its prevalence among Lithuanian teenagers

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify how widely deliberate self-harm is spread and the types of deliberate self-harm among 15-17-year-old teenagers in Lithuania. Material and methods: The anonymous Lifestyle and Coping Questionnaire was used for the study carried out in 2006. This countrywide study involved 3848 respondents (2200 girls (57.2 %) and 1648 boys (42.8%)) aged 15-17 years from all 10 regions of Lithuania. Results: According to the findings of this study, 7.3% of 15-17-year-old Lithuanian teenagers (9.9% girls and 3.8% boys) stated that they had deliberately overdosed drugs or tried to inflict self-injury in other ways. Less than half of them (43.4%) reported that they were thinking to repeat such behavior. Half of the adolescents who inflicted self-injury were living in a two-parent family, 27.4% - with one of the parents, 7% - with other member of the family, and 9% - with other people. One-third of adolescents (34.2%) choose internal ways of self-harm, 26% - external self-injury, 11% - tried to harm themselves in mixed way, and 28.8% - did not indicate the way. In case of a self-injury mentioned above, 13.5% of adolescents were admitted to hospital. Conclusions: In Lithuania, adolescent self-harm is relatively frequent: 7.3% of 15-17-year-old Lithuanian adolescents deliberately self-harmed during their life. The most frequent way to self-harm is to overdose. This study confirms the need for preventive activities and necessity of further studies in this field.