Page 93

GRANT

journal

ISSN 1805-062X, 1805-0638 (online), ETTN 072-11-00002-09-4

EUROPEAN GRANT PROJECTS | RESULTS | RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT | SCIENCE

in the appearance of a motive of hardiness or resistance to pain in
the group of boys. The results of the descriptive analysis are shown
in Table 2.

Table 2. The most frequent reasons for self-harm in adolescent boys
and girls

Girls

Boys

Rank

Reason

…express my anger

(Self-punishment)

…express my anger

(Self-punishment)

…punishing myself

(Self-punishment)

…resisting pain

(Toughness)

…release emotional

pressure (Affect

regulation)

…release emotional

pressure (Affect

regulation)

Finally, we examined the occurrence of the most common reasons
for self-harm in young people living in complete or incomplete
families, separately for both sexes. Reason for self-harm: "by this, I
express my anger at myself for being incompetent or stupid" most
often occurring in boys (N = 48) and girls (N = 53) from complete
families. There were also reasons for self-harm in boys from
complete families: "by this, I find out whether I can endure the pain"
(N = 42), and "by this, I release the emotional pressure that
increased in me" (N = 39). The same reasons appeared in boys from
single-parent families (N = 24). For boys from single-parent
families, they were also the most common reasons for self-harm "I
punish myself" (N = 26), "I express my anger at myself for being
incompetent or stupid", and "I push my limits in a way similar to
parachuting or other extreme activities" (N = 20).

Other reasons for self-harm in girls from complete families
included: I punish myself (N = 49), "I create a physical sign that I
feel terrible" and "I release the emotional pressure that has increased
in me" (N = 47). Girls from single-parent families most often gave
reasons: "I calm myself" and "I reduce anxiety, frustration, anger, or
other emotions that flood me" (N = 24), "I punish myself" and "I
release the emotional pressure that has grown inside me" (N = 22),
"I create a physical sign that I feel terrible" and "to point to the
emotional pain I am experiencing" (N = 21). Even in this case, the
areas of emotion regulation and self-punishment were among the
basic reasons for self-harm. For boys from both complete and
single-parent families, there was again a motive for pain resistance,
but for boys from single-parent families, one of the dominant
reasons was the search for excitement. On the other hand, a pointing
out distress appeared to be an important reason for girls in both
types of families, and a motive belonging to the area of interpersonal
influence also appeared for girls from single-parent families. The
results of the statistical descriptive are shown in Table 3.

Table 3. The most common reasons for self-harm in adolescent boys
and girls from complete and single-parent families

Boys

Girls

Complete

family

Single-

parent

family

Complete

family

Single-

parent

family

Rank

Reason (N)

…express

my anger at

myself

(N=48)

…punish

myself

(N=26)

…express

my anger at

myself

(N=53)

...calm

down

(N=24)

…reduce

anxiety, …

(N=24)

…resist

...punish

pain

(N=42)

pain

(N=24)

…release

emotional

pressure

(N=24)

myself

(N=49)

myself

(N=22)

…release

emotional

pressure

(N=22)

…release

emotional

pressure

(N=39)

…express

my anger at

myself

(N=20)

…push my

limits

(N=20)

...create a

physical

sign

(N=47)

…release

emotional

pressure

(N=47)

...create a

physical

sign

(N=21)

...point to

the

emotional

pain

(N=21)

DISCUSSION

To some extent, self-harm is related to the personality structure of
the individual and his or her ability to regulate emotions. According
to Hawton et al. (2012), people who tend to be irritable, feel unable
to cope, suffer from chronic anger (mostly to themselves) and
anxiety, people more impulsive, more depressed, and helpless, are
more likely to experience self-harm. Using a descriptive analysis of
the data obtained from research sample, we found that the most
common reasons for self-harm in adolescents are those that fall into
the areas of self-punishment and affect regulation. Even when the
research sample is divided, self-punishment and affect regulation
remain the most prevalent reasons of self-harm in boys and girls,
both from complete and single-parent families. We would like to
note that self-punishment is represented by several statements – one
of them is rather direct (“I am doing that to punish myself”), the
other one rather implicit, implying questions about possibilities or
skills to manage negative feelings by adolescents (“I express my
anger at myself”). In this finding, we perceive further possibilities
for psychological research, and, mostly, for interventions based on
understanding the subtle context of motivation to self-harm.

Our findings are partially consistent with the results of previous
research by Suyemoto (1998), Klonsky (2007), Edmondson et al.
(2016), and Démuthová & Václaviková (2019), where affect
regulation is the most frequent motive of self-harm. Individuals use
this behavior in order to calm themselves down (Klonsky & Glenn,
2009), to relieve the emotional pain and prevent bad memories and
thoughts to emerge. Thus, self-harm in adolescents is the way they
cope with an unpleasant emotional state. It may be that physical
injury to one's own body helps adolescents lower emotional
suffering, which is sometimes perceived as being worse than
physical pain. The need to provide adolescents with professional
support (even trainings) in managing emotions seems even more
urgent from this point of view.

Self-punishment as motive to cause harm to oneself is reported very
frequently, Edmondson et al. (2016) identified this motive in over
half of analyzed quantitative studies. In our research, self-
punishment as a motive for self-harm occurred in dominant
positions especially among girls. The statement "by this I respond to
the fact that I am unhappy or disgusted with myself" to a certain
extent corresponds with findings of Flett et al. (2012), where higher
rates of self-harm were identified among women who were not
satisfied with their appearance or abilities. Authors draw attention to
their findings that women who are very self-critical, or those who
are ashamed of their body and behavior, or their abilities, show a
higher likelihood of self-harm than women who are confident.

Vol. 9, Issue 1