Self Harmbehaviours among Adolescents and Young Adults: A Review

Abstract

Self harm behaviors ishighly prevalent & major public health concern that affects millions of young people and adolescents worldwide. It is also known as “Non-Suicidal Self-Harm” (NSSH). NSSI “the deliberate, self-inflicted destruction of body tissue without suicidal intent and for purposes not socially sanctioned which explicitly excludes behaviors engaged in with any level of suicidal intention” (Nock, 2017).  It has been seen that suicidal behaviors are one of the leading cause of death in adolescence and global patterns has shown an increasing rates of NSSI among adolescents (Carvalho et al., 2017).A significant number of adolescents self-harm, but the majority of instances do not reach medical services or the attention of college administration or parents. As a result, it's critical to comprehend the extent and nature of how numerous parts of this developmental phase can be misaligned, resulting in the adoption of serious risk behaviors and psychopathology (Borges &Werlang, 2016). This article reviews the prevalence, nature and patterns; associates and correlates; mobile app as interventional strategy for self harm behaviors (NSSI) among adolescents and young adults. An extensive literature review was executed by browsing databases namely PubMed, Scopus, web of science, Google scholar ,associations webpages, Government of India Guidelines with keywords-Self harm, Adolescents, young adults, correlates and predictors , nature and pattern, mobile apps. We also screened the reference list of selected articles to find out other relevant articles or studies. Selected literature was assessed and findings were synthesized and included in this review article under following sub themes based on objectives of the review- prevalence, nature and patterns; predictors and risk factors; associates and correlates; mobile health app as interventional strategy for self harm behaviors