Non-suicidal Self-injury and gender differences in adolescence

Introduction. Non-suicidal Self-injury has been included as diagnostic categories as conditions for further study in the DSM-5, defined for the first time in a classificatory system to standardize further research. It is highly widespread among adolescents and young adults in an age of onset esteemed often in the first adolescence, particularly for girls, as the clinical experience seems to suggest. The adolescent is obliged to face different challenges, above all the construction of identity and gender identity, considered complex for young women at the internal with the primary relationship with the mother, who should be at the same time object of identification and differentiation. Further the puberal transformations mark the girl’s relation with her own body. Objectives. Since just a few studies have investigated gender differences in NSSI this work wants to value the importance of the variable of gender in NSSI, reflecting on the relationship between biological events, imaginary configurations and psychopathological organizations. At a later stage, the study aims at exploring the relationship between NSSI, suicide attempt and gender, considering new equivalent forms of suicides. Methods. A literature research was conducted with PubMed, PsychINFO, ScienceDirect in order to identify all studies investigating the relationship between NSSI and gender, considering the gender as the organizing criterion of the review. Results. Although do not exist coincident data on the prevalence rates for NSSI between boys and girls, we notice meaningful differences of gender as regard to the modalities of the NSSI, to the injured zones of the body, to the age of onset and to the psychic functions that perform NSSI. Discussion. We propose some psychodynamic reflections on the relation between gender and identity, on gender and different modalities of acting in adolescence and on the specific mechanisms of defense, which we think may be useful to examine in depth some characteristics of NSSI