| The purpose of this study was to use mutiltiple sources of data to devise a profile for identifying children at greater risk for engaging in self-mutilative behaviors. The sample for this study consisted of 57 children drawn from 18 basic care group homes from throughout Georgia. Using descriptive and correlational research methods, data were incorporated from the Child Behavior Checklist, the Youth Self-Report, the Functional Assessment of Self-Mutilation, the Social History/Demographic survey, agency behavior logs, and psychological evaluations.;By investigating the behavioral characteristics, traumatic childhood experiences, and diagnostic labels of child and adolescent group home populations, different profiles emerged for confirmed self-mutilating, unconfirmed self-mutilating, and nonmutilating groups of subjects. Overall, specific Youth Self-Report scales indicating aggressive, delinquent, attentional, social, thought disordered, anxious, or depressive problems significantly differentiated between subject groups. Also, Functional Assessment of Self-Mutilation data accurately corresponded with client records for 96% of confirmed self-mutilating subjects. Childhood abuse or trauma signaled the need to rule out self-injurious tendencies, as did histories of school retention, Axis II diagnoses, multiple Axis I diagnoses, suicide attempt histories, substance abuse histories, and early hospitalizations. In addition to any Axis II diagnoses, specific diagnoses were identified that could intimate self-mutilative tendencies in group home children. Finally, a profile of the self-injurious acts perpetrated by confirmed and unconfirmed self-mutilating group home youths indicated notable between-group differences regarding the nature of self-injurious behaviors. Implications of current findings are discussed from the theoretical frameworks of attachment and object-relations theories. |
