Thoughts of self-harm in adolescents: Relationship with violence in the Dominican Republic

Kelsey Badger; Pamela Baez Caraballo; Ahzyris Gibbs; Luz Messina; Mina Halpern; Silvia Amesty

doi:10.1371/journal.pgph.0002711

Thoughts of self-harm in adolescents: Relationship with violence in the Dominican Republic

PLOS Glob Public Health. 2024 Jan 8;4(1):e0002711. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0002711. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Kelsey Badger^{1

2}, Pamela Baez Caraballo³, Ahzyris Gibbs³, Luz Messina³, Mina Halpern³, Silvia Amesty^{4

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York, United States of America.
² Department of Psychiatry, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, Sylmar, California, United States of America.
³ Clínica de Familia, La Romana, Dominican Republic.
⁴ Center for Family and Community Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York, United States of America.
⁵ Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, United States of America.
⁶ Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York, United States of America.

Abstract

Violence against adolescents is a pressing health problem with long-term implications for future physical and mental well-being, such as thoughts of self-harm, which have been associated with suicidal ideation and completion. However, much of the research has been conducted only in high-income countries. This study aimed to examine the correlation between violence against adolescents and self-harm thoughts in La Romana, Dominican Republic (DR). Cross-sectional survey data was collected at a community-based clinic from participants aged 13-20. Participants were recruited through the clinic's adolescent program and peer referral, and verbal consent was obtained. A survey solicited information about each participant's demographics, experiences with violence, and thoughts of harm to self or others. The survey was completed by 49 adolescents. The mean age was 16.78 (SD 2.34); 65% were female. We performed t-tests and Fisher's exact to investigate the relationship between demographics, reported violence experiences and having self-harm thoughts. About half (45%) had experienced physical violence, 76% had experienced emotional violence, and 12% had experienced sexual violence. The most common perpetrators of physical and emotional violence were classmates (12% and 24%), and the most common perpetrator of sexual violence was an ex-partner (4.1%). Ten participants (20.4%) had thought about harming themselves. Self-harm thoughts were significantly associated with being female (p = 0.025), employed (p = 0.05), and to a higher number of experiences of physical (0.029) and sexual violence (p = 0.023). The results of this study suggest a high prevalence of both violence and self-harm thoughts in adolescents in the DR. Interventions that address physical and sexual violence against adolescents may be particularly important. Particular attention should also be paid to screening for self-harm thoughts in female-identifying adolescents. Further research is needed to better understand the relationship between violence and self-harm thoughts in adolescents in the DR.

Copyright: © 2024 Badger et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Grants and funding

This project was funded by the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Scholarly Projects program and the Friedman award. (KB) The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. None of the authors received salaries from this funding source.