Association between patterns of adverse childhood experiences, screen time and non-suicidal self-injury behaviors among middle school students

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to understand the relationship between patterns of adverse childhood experiences(ACEs), screen time and non-suicidal self-injury behaviors(NSSI) among middle school students. Stratified cluster sampling method was used to select 14 500 middle school students(7347 boys and 7153 girls; 7247 junior high school students and 7253 senior high school students; 7619 urban students and 6881 rural students) from Shenzhen, Guiyang, Nanchang and Zhengzhou Cities. Questionnaire surveys were conducted using the child abuse questionnaire, household dysfunction questionnaire, non-suicidal self-injury behavior questionnaire and screen time items. The latent class analysis was used to evaluate the ACEs exposure patterns, and multivariable logistic regressions was used to analyze the association between patterns of ACEs, screen time levels and their combined effects with NSSI. Latent class analysis indicated four distinct patterns of ACE exposure: highly ACEs group(6.3%), highly abuse and neglect group(21.4%), lowly ACEs group(26.8%), highly neglect group(45.5%). Those in highly ACEs(OR=4.65, 95%CI 3.73-5.80), highly abuse and neglect(OR=3.43, 95%CI 2.91-4.06) and highly neglect(OR=1.31, 95%CI 1.11-1.55) group had significantly higher risk of NSSI compared with those in lowly ACEs group(P<0.001). In study days(OR=1.72, 95%CI 1.42-2.08) and weekends(OR=1.42, 95%CI 1.27-1.60), high screen time were associated with increased rate of NSSI(P<0.01). There showed a trend toward increased risk of NSSI with increasing ACEs exposure and screen time level(P<0.05). High ACEs exposure patterns and high screen time are associated with increased rate of NSSI. Reducing ACEs exposure and controlling screen time is beneficial to the prevention and control of NSSI in middle school students.