Observational Study
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World J Psychiatry. Mar 19, 2022; 12(3): 494-504
Published online Mar 19, 2022. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v12.i3.494
Personality traits and self-harm behaviors among Chinese children and adolescents: The mediating effect of psychological resilience
Xue-Yang Jiao, Chuan-Zhi Xu, Ying Chen, Qing-Lan Peng, Hai-Liang Ran, Yu-San Che, Die Fang, Jun-Wei Peng, Lin Chen, Si-Fan Wang, Yuan-Yuan Xiao
Xue-Yang Jiao, Chuan-Zhi Xu, Ying Chen, Qing-Lan Peng, Hai-Liang Ran, Yu-San Che, Die Fang, Jun-Wei Peng, Lin Chen, Si-Fan Wang, Yuan-Yuan Xiao, School of Public Health, Kunming Medical University, Kunming 650500, Yunnan Province, China
Author contributions: Xiao YY conceived the study; Jiao XY, Xu CZ, Chen Y, Peng QL, Ran HL, Che YS, Fang D, Peng JW, Chen L, and Wang SF collected, verified, and analyzed the data; Jiao XY and Xu CZ drafted the manuscript; all authors provided critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82060601; Top Young Talents of Yunnan Ten Thousand Talents Plan, No. YNWR-QNBJ-2018-286; and the Innovative Research Team of Yunnan Province, No. 202005AE160002.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Review Board of Kunming Medical University, No. KMMU2020MEC047.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: The analytical dataset of the current study can be obtained from the corresponding author under reasonable request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yuan-Yuan Xiao, PhD, Professor, School of Public Health, Kunming Medical University, No. 1168 Chunrong West Road, Kunming 650500, Yunnan Province, China. 33225647@qq.com
Received: September 6, 2021
Peer-review started: September 6, 2021
First decision: December 27, 2021
Revised: January 5, 2022
Accepted: February 16, 2022
Article in press: February 16, 2022
Published online: March 19, 2022
Processing time: 193 Days and 5.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Previous studies have shown that personality traits are associated with self-harm (SH) in adolescents. However, the role of resilience in this association remains unclear. Our research aims to explore the hypothesized mediation effect of resilience in the relationship between personality traits and SH in Chinese children and adolescents.

AIM

To evaluate resilience as a mediator of the association between personality traits and SH.

METHODS

A population-based cross-sectional survey involving 4471 children and adolescents in Yunnan province in southwestern China was carried out. Relevant data were collected by self-reporting questionnaires. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were employed to identify associated factors of SH. A path model was used to assess the mediation effect of resilience with respect to personality traits and SH association.

RESULTS

Among the 4471 subjects, 1795 reported SH, with a prevalence of 40.1% (95%CI: 34.4%-46.0%). All dimensions of personality traits were significantly associated with SH prevalence. Resilience significantly mediated the associations between three dimensions of personality (extroversion, neuroticism, psychoticism) and SH, accounting for 21.5%, 4.53%, and 9.65%, respectively, of the total associations. Among all dimensions of resilience, only emotional regulation played a significant mediation role.

CONCLUSION

The results of the study suggest that improving emotion regulation ability might be effective in preventing personality-associated SH among Chinese children and adolescents.

Keywords: Adolescents; Emotion regulation; Mediation; Personality traits; Resilience; Self-harm

Core Tip: In children and adolescents, personality traits are closely related to self-harm (SH) behaviors. In this cross-sectional study of 4471 Chinese children and adolescents, we detected a significant role of resilience in the association between personality traits and SH. Further, among all dimensions of resilience, only emotion regulation mediated the association between personality and SH. Improving emotion regulation ability could reduce the occurrence of SH in Chinese children and adolescents.