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depression and self harm
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Essay of 5 pages for the course Psychology at CU (easy 1st year)
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Student ID: 5607088How does having depression effect an adolescent’s risk to self-harm?
A quarter of the population will experience some kind of anxiety and depression during a one year
period (The Office for National Statistics Psychiatric Morbidity report, 2001). The UK also has the
highest self-harm rates in Europe (Self-poisoning and self-injury in adults, Clinical Medicine, 2002).
Depression is overlooked as important, but in fact it is a fatal illness where an estimated of 15% of
those suffering from depression eventually commit suicide (Scott, 2006). It not only affects the
sufferer but those around them making life in all difficult. Depression can occur due to many reasons
such as bad childhood experiences, a tragic event or a chronic illness including heart diseases and
cancer. There are different types of depression such as mild depression, post natal depression and
seasonal affective disorder (SAD). The articles chosen looks at adolescents. One article by
Mikolajczak, Petrides and Hurry (2009) look at the way adolescents use coping strategies in able to
regulate their emotions. The other article by Garisch and Wilson (2010) looks at how vulnerable
adolescents are to deliberately self-harm, focusing on peer victimisation.
Garisch, J.A. and Wilson, M.S., (2010). Vulnerabilities to deliberate self-harm among adolescents:
The role of alexithymia and victimization. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 49, 151-163.
Garisch and Wilson’s aim was to investigate the vulnerabilities towards deliberate self-harm in
adolescents, focusing on peer victimisation and alexithymia (151), which is the unawareness of ones
emotions. The independent variable in this study is the level of victimisation from such things such
as bullying. The dependent variable is the degree of deliberate self-harm on that individual. The
hypothesis was that the adolescents who deliberately self-harm themselves are most likely to
experience bullying and self-victimisation, and would be associated with alexithymia. The design is a
correlational survey design. They took 325 high-school students from a high socio-economic school
(154) and they completed a self -report questionnaire on deliberate self-harm, depression and
alexithymia (151). Which is a limitation as we cannot relate this study to those of a lower socio-
economic background, also it was conducted on European students so cannot be related to those of
an ethnic minority either. A t-test showed that self-harming adolescents scored higher in depression
and alexithymia. An ANOVA and a post hoc Tukey test showed how long-term self-harmers scored
significantly higher in alexithymia than those who only self-harmed once and non-self-harmers (155).
Results showed that self-harm is mainly conducted by those who are victimised and suffer from
alexithymia. They stated that alexithymia is what moderates and mediates self-harm and that
depression is what moderates alexithymia and self-harm. They concluded that stressors that cause
an individual to feel victimised, such as bullying, can encourage deliberate self-harm, especially if the
individual suffers from alexithymia and has mood issues (151).
Mikolajczak, M., Petrides, K.V. and Hurry, J., (2009). Adolescents choosing self-harm as an emotion
regulation strategy: The protective role of trait emotional intelligence. British Journal of Clinical
Psychology, 48, 181-193.
The aim of this study was to extend further the understanding of the role of dispositional factors,
which are internal factors, which can induce self-harm. The independent variable is the level of trait
emotional intelligence (181). The dependent variable is the level of self-harm. The design used is an
independent. The design is a correlational survey. They hypothesised that individuals with a higher
trait of emotional intelligence would be more likely to be associated with a lower chance to self-
harm. They state that this is due to the fact that those with higher trait emotional intelligence have
good coping strategies (181). The participants came from 8 different schools and their ages range
from 16-19, with one 20 year old. The ethnic percentage was similar to that of the general
population (184). Therefore there is no issue of not being representative. The correlation between
, Student ID: 5607088
trait emotional intelligence and self-harm came to -31 (186) therefore showing a negative
correlation, which shows having a higher trait emotional intelligence means a lower self-harm rate.
Therefore supports their hypothesis. The relationship between trait emotional intelligence and self-
harm was mediated by the choice of coping strategy. They stated that harming themselves may be a
way to reduce negative coping styles such as self-blame (181). They concluded that these findings
can help in the real world with integrating coping coaching programmes to treat self-harm patients.
The issue with both the studies is that they didn’t consider any recent negative life events which may
have happened recently which can affect the results considerably, as they can increase depression
and probably have more extreme methods of coping, which may not be a normal representation of
themselves. Another problem these studies have is that they are only correlations, meaning no
cause or effect was found. They can be overcome. As in Mikolajczak, Petrides and Hurry’s study they
could possibly measure trait emotional intelligence before self-harming and then after self-harming
to see what real effects there are from this. However it may be a long process as you may not know
if someone is going to self–harm or when. With Garisch and Wilson’s study it can easily be twisted to
say which causes which, bullying may cause self-harm, however it is possible that it is due to self-
harm that the bullying is occurring. In the future they could improve by maybe turning it into a
longitudinal study to be able to monitor the exact vulnerabilities cause by victimisation, enabling a
cause and effect relationship to be identified.
Mikolajczak, Petrides and Hurry’s study, unlike Garisch and Wilson’s, didn’t differentiate how many
times the participants had inflicted self-harm, therefore those who were in the category of self-harm
ranged from only self-harming once to continuously self-harming. Therefore results aren’t reliable as
such. Therefore for further research a study which categorises minor cases of self-harm in major
cases of self-harm should be administrated so the depression differences or the trait emotional
intelligence differences can be assessed more clearly and wider knowledge would be found.
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