Striving and competing and its relationship to self-harm in young adults

Previous research has found that competitive, insecure striving (striving to avoid inferiority) has strong links with mood disorders, self-harm, and appearance anxiety. However, with rates of reported self-harm in young people rising, it seems important to explore the link between competitive striving and self-harm in young adults. Ninety participants completed a series of questionnaires which measured striving to avoid inferiority, self-harm, mood, social comparison, goal orientation, and self-ideals. The results indicated that competitive insecure striving was significantly related to self-harm, depression, anxiety, and stress