Title : Interaction among depression, emotion regulation and parental rearing in adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury: A cross-sectional network analysis
Abstract:
Background: Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) behavior is a serious public health problem, which seriously endangers the physical and mental health of adolescents. Studies have shown that depression, emotion regulation and parental rearing are closely related to NSSI, but the interaction mechanism of the three is not clear. Therefore, this study used network analysis to explore the relationship between depression, emotion regulation and parental rearing in non-suicidal self-injured adolescents.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in three middle schools in Zhoukou City and Nanyang City, Henan Province, and 690 valid questionnaires were collected. There were 217 adolescents involved in NSSI behaviors and 473 adolescents involved in non-NSSI behaviors, and the mean age of the participants was 14.90 (± 2. 09) years. Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI), depressive symptoms, emotion regulation, and parenting were assessed using the Adolescent Self-harm Scale, the Center for Epidemiological Study Depression Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and Short-Enga Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran Chinese Version, respectively.
Results: Adolescents with NSSI behavior had higher levels of depression. The results of network analysis show that depression, emotion regulation and parental rearing are complex interactions among non-suicidal self-injury adolescents. Among them, the results of central analysis show that depression is the core factor of network. The bridge symptom analysis results show that emotional warmth is the core symptom of the entire network, regardless of whether the adolescent has NSSI behavior or not. Among the adolescents with NSSI behavior, the strongest intermediary centrality is rejection (father). Edge weight difference test found that there were statistically significant differences between adolescent networks with NSSI behavior and non-NSSI behavior, such as rejecting father-protecting father, expression inhibition-rejecting mother, and rejecting father-rejecting mother.
Conclusion: Depression, emotion regulation and parental rearing are complex interactions among adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury. Depression and parental emotional warmth are the key factors affecting adolescents' NSSI behavior. Adolescents' depression, improving parental rearing, such as improving parental emotional warmth support, and then improving their emotional regulation ability can contribute to the occurrence of adolescents' NSSI behavior.
