Self-injurious behavior and adolescence: a review of predisposing factors, preventive and therapeutic strategies

With the aim of describing self-injurious behavior among adolescents, including predisposing factors, strategies for health promotion and prevention of this behavior, as well as for its treatment, a narrative review was developed based on the criteria of the Scale for the Assessment of Narrative Review Articles. Searches were carried out in the PubMed, Virtual Health Library, Scientific Electronic Library Online, CAPES, and Google Scholar databases with a time frame from 2018 to 2023, and the primary descriptors used were “Self-Injurious Behavior”, “Self Mutilation”, “Adolescent”, “Causality”, “Risk factors”, “Suicide”, “Suicidal Ideation”, “Health Promotion”, “Primary Prevention”, “Secondary Prevention”, “Tertiary Prevention”, “Therapeutic ” and “Self-harm Behavior”. The selected articles were categorized into 1. Predisposing factors for self-injury, 2. Preventive strategies for self-injury, and 3. Therapeutic strategies for self-injury. It was evident that adolescence is marked by challenges, vulnerability, and brain immaturity, which makes these subjects prone to self-harm behaviors. Factors such as family conflicts, psychological disorders, childhood abuse, prejudice and discrimination, and being female increase this propensity. Strengthening family ties, teacher-student approximation, and health service-user stand out as preventive strategies for self-injury. Treatment should include early identification and intervention, with possibilities such as harm reduction and emotional regulation techniques, as well as psychotherapy with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.