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Self-harm and Aggression in Chinese Early Adolescents: Their Co-occurrence and the Role of Bullying Victimization

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Abstract

Self-harm and aggression increase markedly during early adolescence. However, few studies considered these harmful behaviors simultaneously. This study employed a person-centered approach to identify profiles of adolescents who differed in their patterns of self-harm, reactive aggression, and proactive aggression, examined the stability of these patterns, and explored the effect of bullying victimization on latent profile membership and transition. A total of 2463 early adolescents (48.8% girls, Mage = 13.93 ± 0.59) participated in two waves of the study over six months. The results indicated that low symptoms profile (80.4%), moderate aggression profile (14.2%), high aggression profile (3.0%), and high self-harm profile (2.4%) were identified at time 1, and low symptoms profile (82.1%), dual-harm profile (7.6%), high aggression profile (7.7%), and high self-harm profile (2.6%) were identified at time 2. Adolescents assigned to at-risk profiles showed moderate to high transition, suggesting the developmental heterogeneity of self-harm and aggression. Moreover, adolescents high in bullying victimization were more likely to belong or transition to at-risk profiles. The findings revealed the co-occurring and transitional nature of self-harm and aggression and the transdiagnostic role of bullying victimization, which can be used to guide prevention and intervention strategies.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the adolescents who participated in this study, and the research team that assisted in recruitment and data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, No. 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing, 100875, China

    Yuke Xiong, Yue Wang, Hang Zhang, Liu Yang & Ping Ren

  2. China National Children’s Center, 43 Pinganlixi Street, Beijing, 100035, China

    Yi Wei

Authors
  1. Yuke Xiong
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  2. Yi Wei
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  3. Yue Wang
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  4. Hang Zhang
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  5. Liu Yang
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  6. Ping Ren
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Contributions

YX participated in the analysis and interpretation of the data, and produced the drafting of the manuscript; YW participated in the analysis and interpretation of the data, and critiqued the output for important intellectual content; YW participated in the analysis of the data and critiqued the output for important intellectual content; HZ participated in the interpretation of the data and critiqued the output for important intellectual content; LY helped edited the manuscript; PR conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China [Grant Number: 20BSH067].

Data Sharing and Declaration

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ping Ren.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in the present study were in accordance with the recommendations of the Research Ethics Committee of the Beijing Normal University and with the Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from both adolescents and their caregivers included in the study.

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Xiong, Y., Wei, Y., Wang, Y. et al. Self-harm and Aggression in Chinese Early Adolescents: Their Co-occurrence and the Role of Bullying Victimization. J Youth Adolescence 51, 2008–2017 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01620-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01620-6

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