Abstract
Life-time prevalence of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) has consistently been found to be around 17% in community samples of adolescents. Concerns of threats to mental health in adolescents during covid-19 have been raised. Life-time prevalence of NSSI in high school students in Sweden was compared using the same item to assess NSSI at three different time points. Results showed very similar prevalence of NSSI in 2011 and 2014 (17.2 % vs. 17.7 %), and an increase to 27.6 % during the pandemic of 2020-2021. Our findings imply a need to highlight the potential psychosocial consequences of covid-19 for young people.
Highlights
After the most acute medical consequences of the pandemic have been addressed, the psychosocial consequences of covid-19 are beginning to be highlighted world-wide (Fegert et al, 2020), since risk factors that threaten mental health in children and adolescents are increasing as a consequence of societal restrictions and isolation (Pieh et al, 2021)
Life-time prevalence of non suicidal self-injury (NSSI) was assessed in all three data collections with the same question from the self-report version of the Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview (SITBI) “Have you ever engaged in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI; that is, purposely hurt yourself without wanting to die, for example by cutting or burning)?” (Nock et al, 2007)
Cross-tabulation with chi-square analyses showed that differences in NSSI between sample II and III were statistically significant (p < .001) for the whole sample, and for girls, boys and non-binary, respectively
Summary
After the most acute medical consequences of the pandemic have been addressed, the psychosocial consequences of covid-19 are beginning to be highlighted world-wide (Fegert et al, 2020), since risk factors that threaten mental health in children and adolescents are increasing as a consequence of societal restrictions and isolation (Pieh et al, 2021). There is some preliminary support for an increase in self-harm based on hospital records (McIntyre et al, 2020, Ougrin et al, 2021) and medical claim lines for adolescents (Health White Paper, 2021) during the pandemic, while Hawton and colleagues did not find an increase of self-harm in adults in emergency units during the three months following the first lockdown in the UK (Hawton et al, 2021) These studies did not separate suicidal behavior from NSSI, and there is currently a lack of knowledge of the impact of covid-19 on the prevalence of self-injury without suicidal intent in adolescents (Plener, 2021). We present the first study to investigate a possible increase in rates of NSSI during the pandemic, using large community samples
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