Comparison of Emotion Regulation Skills and Suicide Probability in Adolescents with Self-Harm

Objective: Self-harm was classified to show forms like non-suicidal self injury and indirect risky behaviors and drug abuse. The aims of this study were to compare suicidal tendencies indexes and difficulty in emotion regulation skills in mixed groups of adolescents with direct and indirect forms of self-harm. Methods: In a casual-comparative design from population of delinquent adolescents detained in Tehran correctional center and adolescents with histories of childhood maltreatment who lived in Iranian social welfare centers. 238 adolescents were selected. Then Groups based on direct and indirect self-harm were formed (control group, direct self-harm, indirect self-harm and mixed group). We used self-harm checklists, difficulties in emotion regulation checklist and suicide probability scale as instruments. Results: Suicide probability of adolescents in mixed group was significantly higher than that of all groups but there weren’t significant differences between direct and indirect self-harm. There weren’t significant differences between groups in emotion regulation skills (P<0.001). Scores of impulse control difficulty subscale in adolescents with direct self-harm were significantly higher than those of indirect self-harm group (P<0.001) but the scores of mixed group and direct self- harm in impulse control were equal. Suicide ideation of indirect self-harm group was as much as mixed group. Conclusion: Adolescents with direct and indirect self- harm were equally prone to suicide. These findings suggest that inability to impulse control and suicide ideation could be targets for decreasing suicide probability in adolescents with direct and indirect self-harm.