The types of deliberate self-harm and its prevalence among Lithuanian teenagers

The aim of this study is to identify how widely deliberate self-harm is spread and the types of deliberate self-harm among 15–17-year-old teenagers in Lithuania.
Material and methods. The anonymous Lifestyle and Coping Questionnaire was used for the study carried out in 2006. This countrywide study involved 3848 respondents (2200 girls (57.2 %) and 1648 boys (42.8%)) aged 15–17 years from all 10 regions of Lithuania.
Results. According to the findings of this study, 7.3% of 15–17-year-old Lithuanian teenagers (9.9% girls and 3.8% boys) stated that they had deliberately overdosed drugs or tried to inflict self-injury in other ways. Less than half of them (43.4%) reported that they were thinking to repeat such behavior. Half of the adolescents who inflicted self-injury were living in a two-parent family, 27.4% – with one of the parents, 7% – with other member of the family, and 9% – with other people. One-third of adolescents (34.2%) choose internal ways of self-harm, 26% – external self-injury, 11% – tried to harm themselves in mixed way, and 28.8% – did not indicate the way. In case of a self-injury mentioned above, 13.5% of adolescents were admitted to hospital.
Conclusions. In Lithuania, adolescent self-harm is relatively frequent: 7.3% of 15–17-year-old Lithuanian adolescents deliberately self-harmed during their life. The most frequent way to self-harm is to overdose. This study confirms the need for preventive activities and necessity of further studies in this field.