Citation

Sansone RA, Wiederman MW, Jackson J. Traumatology 2008; 14(3): 22-27.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Green Cross Academy of Traumatology, Publisher APA Journals)

DOI

10.1177/1534765608320336

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study examined mothers' awareness of seven self-harm behaviors in their adolescents who were being seen in an outpatient psychiatry clinic--namely, cutting self, burning self, hitting self, banging head, scratching self, preventing wounds from healing, attempting suicide. Using a cross-sectional self-report survey method with 71 mother--adolescent pairs, the study found (a) that self-harm behaviors were reported by 63.4% of the adolescent participants, most commonly, preventing wounds from healing and scratching self; (b) that there was a moderate level of concordance between mother and adolescent with regard to behaviors that were not being performed; (c) that in most cases of discordance, the mother denied a behavior that the adolescent indicated as having actually performed, most commonly, preventing wounds from healing; and (d) that mothers were significantly less likely to acknowledge self-harm behaviors in their adolescents as the number of self-harm behaviors reported by offspring increased (r = --.87, p <.001).

Language: en