Adolescent Self-Harm: Associations With Depressive Symptoms, Age, And Sex in Cross-Sectional Samples From 2019 and 2025

Abstract Book of the 11th International Conference on Modern Research in Social Sciences

Year: 2026

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Adolescent Self-Harm: Associations With Depressive Symptoms, Age, And Sex in Cross-Sectional Samples From 2019 and 2025

Zuzana Rojková, Claudia Misofova

ABSTRACT:

Self-harm (SH) in adolescence is closely linked to depressive symptoms, yet patterns across age and sex may change over time. The aim of the study is to identify associations between self-harm and depressive symptoms in adolescents and to determine age- and sex-specific differences across two time points (2019 and 2025). Adolescents aged 12–18 years were surveyed in 2019 (N = 1,017) and 2025 (N = 834). SH in terms of physical forms were measured as the experience of burning, cutting, scratching, hitting, banging the head, and intentional injuring and was assessed as both a score and a binary variable. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). Within the data processing, comparative and correlation analyses were used, as well as, and binary logistic regression tested CDI, age, sex, and their interactions as predictors of SH. Results show that experimenting with different forms of physical SH decreased slightly from 2019 to 2025. Depressivity was positively associated with SH in both years. Logistic regression confirmed depressive symptoms as a consistent predictor of SH, moderated by age in 2019 and sex in 2025. Conclusions point to a significant link between depression and physical SH. Age and sex effects vary across cohorts, emphasizing the need for targeted preventive interventions.

Keywords: Youth, Depressivity, Prediction, Self-Injuring, Time Changes