Life Events Predicting the First Onset of Adolescent Direct Self-Injurious Behavior-A Prospective Multicenter Study

Michael Kaess; Lena Eppelmann; Romuald Brunner; Peter Parzer; Franz Resch; Vladimir Carli; Camilla Wasserman; Marco Sarchiapone; Christina W Hoven; Alan Apter; Judit Balazs; Shila Barzilay; Julio Bobes; Doina Cosman; Lili O Horvath; Jean-Pierre Kahn; Helen Keeley; Elaine McMahon; Tina Podlogar; Vita Postuvan; Pilar A Saiz; Alexandra Tubiana; Airi Varnik; Danuta Wasserman

doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.08.018

Life Events Predicting the First Onset of Adolescent Direct Self-Injurious Behavior-A Prospective Multicenter Study

J Adolesc Health. 2020 Feb;66(2):195-201. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.08.018. Epub 2019 Oct 31.

Authors

Michael Kaess¹, Lena Eppelmann², Romuald Brunner³, Peter Parzer⁴, Franz Resch⁴, Vladimir Carli⁵, Camilla Wasserman⁵, Marco Sarchiapone⁶, Christina W Hoven⁷, Alan Apter⁸, Judit Balazs⁹, Shila Barzilay¹⁰, Julio Bobes¹¹, Doina Cosman¹², Lili O Horvath¹³, Jean-Pierre Kahn¹⁴, Helen Keeley¹⁵, Elaine McMahon¹⁶, Tina Podlogar¹⁷, Vita Postuvan¹⁷, Pilar A Saiz¹¹, Alexandra Tubiana¹⁴, Airi Varnik¹⁸, Danuta Wasserman⁵

Affiliations

¹ University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Section of Translational Child and Adolescent Psychobiology, Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre of Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. Electronic address: michael.kaess@upd.ch.
² Section of Translational Child and Adolescent Psychobiology, Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre of Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
³ Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre of Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
⁴ Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre of Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
⁵ National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health (NASP), Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
⁶ Department of Health Sciences, University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy; National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty, Rome, Italy.
⁷ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York; Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York.
⁸ Feinberg Child Study Centre, Schneider Children's Medical Centre, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
⁹ Bjørknes University College, Oslo, Norway; Institute of Psychology Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁰ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York; Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Edmond and Lily Safra Children's Hospital, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer Hospital, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Centro de Investigacion Biomedica en Red de Salud Mental, CIBERSAM, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain.
¹² Clinical Psychology Department, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
¹³ Institute of Psychology Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary; Doctoral School of Psychology, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire (CHU) de Nancy, Universite de Lorraine, Nancy, France.
¹⁵ Health Service Executive, Cork, Ireland.
¹⁶ National Suicide Research Foundation, Cork, Ireland.
¹⁷ Slovene Center for Suicide Research, UP IAM, University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia.
¹⁸ Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute (ERSI), Tallinn, Estonia; School of Natural Sciences and Health, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia.

PMID: 31677986
DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.08.018

Abstract

Purpose: Self-injurious behavior is a frequent phenomenon in adolescence. The present study prospectively examined life events as risk factors for the first onset of direct self-injurious behavior (D-SIB) in the Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe school-based multicenter sample.

Methods: Longitudinal assessments with an interval of 1 year were performed within a sample of 1,933 adolescents (51.47% females; mean age 14.84 ± .9 years) from 10 European countries and Israel.

Results: The number of life events during the past 6 months predicted the first onset of D-SIB in the following year. Gender neither predicted the onset of D-SIB nor moderated the association with life events. Moreover, analyses of individual events identified a range of mainly interpersonal events within both family and peer group as proximal risk factors for first episode D-SIB.

Conclusions: The results support the critical role of interpersonal life events in the development of D-SIB for both genders and refine the conceptualization of proximal risk factors in terms of accumulated stressors and interpersonal events.

Keywords: Adolescents; D-SIB; Life events; SEYLE; Self-harm; Self-injury.

Publication types

Multicenter Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior*
Europe
Female
Humans
Israel / epidemiology
Life Change Events*
Male
Prospective Studies
Risk Factors
Self-Injurious Behavior* / epidemiology
Surveys and Questionnaires