Self-Regulation, Emotional Symptomatology, Substance Use, and Social Network Addiction in Adolescent Self-Harm

Background: Non-suicidal self-injurious behaviour (NSSI) is a growing concern in the field of adolescent mental health. It is thus crucial to examine the factors associated with this behaviour. Methods: A sample of 354 adolescents (51.7% boys), with a mean age of 15.01 years (ranging from 12 to 20 years), was analysed to explore the relationships between NSSI and self-regulation strategies, substance use, dependence on social networks, and symptomatology. Results: The results indicate that adolescents who engage in NSSI employ fewer adaptive emotional self-regulation strategies and exhibit more self-blame and rumination than those who do not engage in NSSI. Additionally, these adolescents show greater psychological symptomatology, more dependence on social networks, and increased substance use. Gender is also an important factor, with more girls (62.8%) than boys (37.2%) engaging in self-harm. Regression analyses show that self-harm is associated with greater symptomatology and increased substance use for boys and girls alike. For girls, self-harm is also associated with maladaptive self-regulation strategies. The variables chosen for analysis allowed us to correctly classify 89.5% of the boys who did not self-harm and 72.8% of the girls who did. Conclusions: This study offers insight into the relationships among self-regulation, digital addiction, substance use, emotional symptomatology, and NSSI in adolescents, highlighting the importance of gender.