Childhood maltreatment and non-suicidal self-injury in adolescent population: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is highly prevalent among adolescents. However, knowledge about the possible factors that might precede and influence its development remains scarce.

Objective

Our goal is to examine the impact of adverse childhood events, and more specifically of different types of childhood maltreatment (CM) in adolescent NSSI. This involves performing a systematic review and meta-analysis of the different CM subtypes (physical and emotional neglect, physical and emotional abuse, sexual abuse) in clinical and non-clinical samples of adolescents with NSSI.

Participants and methods

A digital search of the PsycInfo, PubMed and Web of Science platforms for articles published up to June 2022 was performed. The search terms were “self harm”, “non-suicidal self-injury”, “childhood maltreatment” and “adolescents”.

Results

Forty-six articles that fit the research objectives were included in the study, which covered a total of 1,505,430 adolescents, of whom 560,337 belonged to the NSSI group, while 945,093 were in the control group. The results describe strong positive associations between all CM subtypes and NSSI, especially with emotional abuse (odds ratio [OR] 2.91, 95 % CI 2.37–3.56) and sexual abuse (OR 2.72, 95 % CI 2.12–3.48), in clinical and non-clinical samples of adolescents.

Conclusions

The experience of CM, and especially emotional and/or sexual abuse, seems to be associated with a greater risk of developing NSSI in adolescence. Therefore, early identification and detection of children who have suffered or are suffering these forms of CM are of vital importance for instigating psychotherapeutic treatments that can minimize the risk of developing NSSI in adolescence.