Trauma and self-harming behaviors in high school students: The mediating role of identity formation.

INTRODUCTION: This study investigated the link between trauma and self-harming behaviors in South African high school students, and examined the mediating role of identity formation. Traumatic experiences have been commonly associated with self-harming behaviors in adolescents. However, research addressing this association in non-Western countries is limited. METHODS: A total of 552 South African high school students aged 13-21 (60.4% female; Mage = 16 years) were included in the study. Students completed self-report questionnaires on traumatic experiences, identity formation, and self-harming behaviors (disturbed eating behaviors and suicidal thoughts and behaviors). RESULTS: Structural equation modelling indicated that the association between traumatic experiences and self-harming behaviors was partially mediated by identity formation. Traumatic experiences were associated with more identity diffusion, bulimia, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Identity diffusion, in turn, was associated with more drive for thinness, bulimia, body dissatisfaction, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Identity consolidation was positively associated with drive for thinness and negatively with body dissatisfaction and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. No moderation effects by gender or age were found. CONCLUSIONS: Traumatic experiences were associated with higher levels of identity diffusion, which, in turn, were associated with more self-harming behaviors in South African high school students. These findings suggest the importance of focusing on identity diffusion in prevention and intervention programs targeting self-harming behaviors.

The relationship between perceived parenting styles and resilience during adolescence.

Objective - The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between perceived parenting styles and resilience in adolescence. Method - The respondents were a sample of 360 English speaking subjects, with a mean age of 17.6 years. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to investigate this relationship. The criterion variables included sense of coherence and problem-focused, emotion-focused and dysfunctional coping strategies. The predictor variables included six scales. Results - Authoritative parenting provided the most significant contribution to the explanation of the variance in resilience for black and white adolescents, and both genders. Surprisingly, the findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between fathers' authoritarian styles and emotion-focused coping strategies in white adolescent learners. In contrast, other researchers found that authoritarian and harsh parental styles are closely related to psychological disturbance. Conclusions - The identified relationships between the criterion and predictor variables found in this study for both black and white adolescents of both genders have distinct and far-reaching implications for envisaged interventions. A future study might also investigate the present study qualitatively. Further research will be necessary to enhance and develop appropriate parenting styles that facilitate resilience in adolescent children. Making use of more sophisticated methodologies, paying greater attention to the interaction between internal and external circumstances and refining theories to make specific predictions about how input variables influence components, should be considered in future.