Citation

Kostylła M, Szczepaniak A, Gmitrowicz A. Psychiatr. Psychol. Klin. 2009; 9(4): 249-261.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Medical Communications)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

The primary aim of this study was to find a correlation between emotional functioning of hospitalised adolescents and acts of deliberate self-harm. Study of emotional functioning included such aspects as emotional expression and emotional control. Analysis of the phenomenon of auto-aggression was based on quantitative and qualitative classification, i.e. number and methods of auto-aggression. The secondary aim of the present study was to assess correlations between gender, age, type of underlying mental disorder, current familial situation (patient's family status), relations with parents/caregivers and suicidal attempts and their correlation with acts of auto-aggression. Study population consisted of 40 patients treated at the Department of Adolescent Psychiatry of Medical University in Łódź, Poland. Their age ranged from 14 to 18 years, and all had a documented history of at least one act of deliberate self-harm. In this study we used a custom-devised questionnaire, enabling collection of basic sociodemographic data and determination of number, methods and emotional background for acts of auto-aggression in adolescents. Their underlying psychiatric diagnosis was also accounted for. The following instruments were used: the Courtauld Emotional Control Scale (measuring subjective control of feelings of anger, depression and anxiety), and the Color Pyramid Test (projection-based instrument, based on assumed correlation between preference for certain colours and emotional status of an individual). We partly succeeded in confirming the thesis about correlation between emotions (their type and control mechanisms) and undertaken autodestructive behaviours (principal aim). We could not confirm in a statistically meaningful way premises defined as secondary aims of the paper.

Language: pl

Keywords

adolescent; adult; human; Emotions; Adolescents; aggression; anger; anxiety; suicide attempt; Deliberate self-harm; article; mental disease; controlled study; clinical article; automutilation; emotion; hospital patient; psychiatric diagnosis; correlation analysis; Emotional control; Emotional expression