Nonsuicidal self-injury in young women: understanding the meanings involved in the self-injurious act

Abstract

Abstract Self-injury among young women is a public health problem that is still little known and understood by parents, educators and health professionals. We sought to understand selfinjurious behavior in young women from a perspective of the meaning, actions and interpretation of the experienced situation. This qualitative research used semi-structured interview for data collection from January to March 2020. The data were organized by the MAXQDA software and analyzed based on Symbolic Interactionism. The five interviewees are young people educated by their mothers, with little or no contact with their fathers. They narrated stories of sexual abuse, parental rejection, bullying and low acceptance in the school environment. They established a pessimistic perception of themselves arising from their own interpretations and their social interactions. They saw self-injury as a refuge. They practiced self-injury when they were under unbearable negative feelings. They lived in a cycle of substituting psychological suffering for physical suffering. All admitted having anxious temperaments, low self-esteem and socioemotional disabilities. Self-injury is directly linked to the meanings these young women give to themselves. At schools, the incorporation of knowledge about well-being should be encouraged to train people who are more effective in solving problems.