[[alternative]]A study of development and relationships among life stress, social support and ego-strength for self-injured adolescents.

[[abstract]]The purposes of this study were : (1) to investigate the differences among life stress, social support and ego-strength between self-injurious experienced and unexperienced adolescents, (2) to predict self-injurious behavior according to life stress, social support and ego-strength, (3) to explore the cognitive process and subjective experiences of self-injured adolescents by interviewing. In this study, four instruments such as “Life Stress Scales”, “Social Support Scales”, “Ego-Strength Scales” and “Self-Injurious Behavior Scales” were adopted to survey 401 junior high school students. The gathering data were analyzed by t-test and logistic regression analysis methods. Furthermore, 18 adolescents who had self-injured were interviewed for qualitative analysis. The main findings were as follows: 1. According to life stress aspects, there are significant differences between self-injurious experienced and unexperienced adolescents in “family events” and “interpersonal events” , but not in “school events” and “psychophysical developmental events”. 2. According to social support aspects , there are significant differences between self-injurious experienced and unexperienced adolescents in “parent support”, “teacher support”, “classmates support”, “emotion support”, “tangible support” and “information support”. 3. According to ego-strength aspects, there are significant differences between self-injurious experienced and unexperienced adolescents in “self-esteem”, “frustration tolerance” and “locus of control”, but not in “risk- taking”. 4. Social support and ego-strength could significantly predict the self-injurious behaviors of adolescents. 5. According to the inside and subjective experience of self-injured adolescents, the results were as follows: (1)The self-injured adolescents have worse relationship with their parents, teachers and classmates. (2)“Stress of schoolwork” and “family problems” are the main life stress events for self-injured adolescents, they seldom ask their parents and teachers for help when facing stress. (3)The self-injured adolescents always have lower “self-esteem”, no confidence, negative attitude and are not satisfied with their academic achievment. (4)The meaning of self-injurious behavior for adolescents is self-injuring but not suiciding. The purpose of such self-injurious behavior is just to gain attentions from other people, or punish themselves and curiosity only. (5)The primary reasons for adolescents not to self-injure again are gaining support from others, increasing of ego-strength and releasing of stress. Based upon the above mentioned results, discussions and suggestions were presented.