Abstract
As the prevalence of self-harm among adolescents in Chinese escalates, finding out the potential risk factors associated with self-harm behaviors has aroused much attention. This study aims to explore the association between parent-child separation and series of self-harm (SH) subtypes among Chinese adolescents. We survey a total of 4,928 middle school students aged from 12 to 18 years at school. Parent-child separation was investigated from four dimensions—occurrence of parental separation, separation status, age at first separation and duration of separation. Self-harm series are deemed as five subtypes—highly lethal self-harm, less lethal self-harm with visible tissue damage, self-harm without visible tissue damage, self-harmful behaviors with latent damage and psychological self-harm. Multivariate logistic regression is used to explore the associations between parent-child separation and different subtypes of self-harm among adolescents. Paternal separation is associated with each type of self-harm whilst maternal separation is not correlated with highly lethal self-harm. Except for highly lethal self-harm, the other four subtypes of self-harm demonstrate a relation with both length of paternal separation and maternal separation with aOR ranging from 1.02 to 1.06. Individuals who suffer parental separation prior to the age of three were at a higher risk for four types of less-lethal self-harm. The association of parent-child separation with self-harm deserves our attention, and future research is needed to identify the underlying mechanisms.
Highlights
Over the past three decades, inspired by the policy of reform and opening-up and the development of economy in China, more and more rural laborers choose to move into urban areas to make a living (Xu et al, 2018), which is considered the largest migration in history (Wen and Lin, 2012)
When parents leave their children at home and move into cities to look for better employment opportunities, their children who are left at home living with grandparents are referred to as “left-behind children” (LBC) (Jia and Tian, 2010)
In order to precisely estimate the effect of parent-child separation on potential self-harm, we examine the association between parental leave and SH in adolescents by conducting a cross-sectional study in China involving 4,928 general students
Summary
Over the past three decades, inspired by the policy of reform and opening-up and the development of economy in China, more and more rural laborers choose to move into urban areas to make a living (Xu et al, 2018), which is considered the largest migration in history (Wen and Lin, 2012). Working-age parents are forced to migrate, leaving their young children behind largely because of primarily financial pressure and lack of access to public services (Valtolina and Colombo, 2012). When parents leave their children at home and move into cities to look for better employment opportunities, their children who are left at home living with grandparents are referred to as “left-behind children” (LBC) (Jia and Tian, 2010). Parent-child separation has become increasingly common in China during the past decades
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