Self-injurious Behaviors And Psychosocial Determinants In College Students

Objective:College students’ self-injurious behaviors are described, and the psychosocial factors associated with self-injurious behavior of college students are examined so as to provide some suggestions regarding injury prevention and control.Method:freshmen and sophomore from two vocational colleges in Huainan, Anhui province, are selected for the study and convenience sampling method is adopted to select a total of1600freshmen and621sophomore from these two colleges. Based on the principle of voluntary participation, students fill in the survey questions anonymously with the help of the survey conductor.2221questionaries are collected with students between the age of18to24, including764male students and1457females, the average age is21.00±1.99. The survey mainly includes general demographic characteristics, Multidimensional Sub-health Questionnaire of Adolescents (MSQA), and self-injurious behavior within one year. Chi-square test is adopted to study the relationship between colleges self-injurious behavior and the sub-health status, gender, self-evaluated family economic status. The different self-injurious behavior detection rate differences are also compared and examined.Results:College students overall self-injury prevalence rate is20.2%, higher in boys than in girls. Occasionally self-injury (1to3times) account for a total of402students and the prevalence rate is18.1%; repeated self-injury (above4times) amounts to the total number of47students, and the prevalence rate is2.1%. Occasional self-injury mainly includes the following aspects:self-beating intentionally (7.9%), deliberately Plucking hair (5.4%), deliberately self-cutting with fingernails (4.3%), deliberately cutting oneself (3.3%), intentionally hitting the head (2.7%), deliberately biting oneself (1.1%), intentionally self-scald oneself (0.8%), deliberately scratching oneself (0.6%). Repeated self-injury mainly includes the following aspects:deliberately self-cutting with fingernails (1.8%), intentionally hitting the head (1.7%), self-beating intentionally (1.6%), deliberately Plucking hair (1.5%), deliberately biting oneself (1.4%), deliberately scratching oneself (1.4%), deliberately cutting oneself(1.2%), intentionally self-scald oneself (1.0%). Among the above mentioned aspects, self-beating intentionally is mostly adopted in the occasional self-injurious behavior, while deliberately self-cutting with fingernails is the frequently used in the repeated self-injurious behavior.The educational background of mothers, self-evaluated family economic status, sub-healthy psychology of the self-injurious behavior among college students differ greatly and the differences are of statistical significance (P<0.05); The detection rate differences of different grades, father’s educational background, learning pressure of college students’self-injurious behavior are of no statistical significance.Logistic regression analysis shows that being male(OR=1.584,95%CI为1.274～1.970) and psychological sub-health (OR=2.373,95%CI为1.744～3.228) are two major factors contributing to the self-injurious behavior; moderate family economic situation self-evaluated by students is a positive factor that protects students from self-injury (OR=0.726,95%CI%0.559～0.942)Conclusion:self-injurious behavior is a common phenomenon among college students, which is close related to mental health status, gender and self-evaluated family economic status. To prevent and control the self-injurious behavior of college students, concerted efforts should be made from students’family, the school and the whole society.