Self-injury in a residential treatment population of children and adolescents

Jane Hamilton, The University of Texas School of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives. The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between child-abuse and self-injury among children and adolescents living in a residential treatment center in a large urban area. Methods. A retrospective study was conducted through a chart review of the residents who were placed at the center from 2003-2006. A total of 35 cases (with at least one documented incident of self-injury during placement at the residential treatment center) were age/gender matched with 35 controls (without at least one documented incident of self-injury during placement at the residential treatment center). Results. In this study, the case subjects were far more likely to be victims of sexual abuse than were the controls (74.3% vs. 25.7%, respectively). Self-harm was found to be 9.5 times as frequent in the group that was exposed to sexual abuse in the source population (OR = 9.500 with a 95% CI = 2.292, 84.111). The difference was statistically significant (McNemar's test, x2 = 12.190 with 1 df. The two-tailed P value equals 0.0005). Conclusion. These findings suggest that school-age and early-adolescent children who have a history of sexual abuse may engage in a variety of self-harming behaviors. Clinicians should consider a history of sexual abuse when working with self-harming children.

Subject Area

Mental health|Social work

Recommended Citation

Hamilton, Jane, "Self-injury in a residential treatment population of children and adolescents" (2007). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI1445438.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI1445438

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