Psychology: Personality Traits and Self-Injurious Behaviors in Secondary School Adolescents

Abstract

In the educational field, cases of self-injurious behaviors have been found in students between the ages of 12 to 17 years, showing negative emotions such as anger, sadness, and frustration. Sometimes, it happens by imitation or by belonging to a social group showing cuts, blows, scratches, leading to death if they are not identified. For this reason, the aim of the study is to determine the relationship between personality traits and self-injurious behaviors in students from first to fifth year of secondary education between the ages of 12 and 17 years, to make known the trait and their state of mind in which they are immersed when facing different conflicts. Therefore, psychopathological personality traits in adolescents were evaluated. The method studied is a quantitative approach of correlational and cross-sectional type of a single research process, being of a non-experimental design with the aim to check the hypothesis tests, the non-parametric statistic was used, obtaining as a result a direct correlation between personality traits and self-injurious behaviors in the students. Likewise, the data collection instruments present a high degree of reliability in the Personality Inventory (JEPI) with a Cronbach’s Alpha of .907, in McDonald’s Omega .930 and the SHAGER self-injury scale in the Two-Half method with a coefficient of .917. The reliability of the item analysis ranged from .898 to .917 for Cronbach’s Alpha and in McDonald’s Omega from .924 to .931. Consequently, in the results, it was identified that 62% of female’s self-harm and present conflicts in their adolescence more than males through 37%, and the other important external and internal factors are also involved. The 37.5% of adolescents present a high instability in the personality trait that they develop according to their biological growth. It is concluded that adolescents presenting a high degree of emotional instability are prone to suffer certain mood disorders such as anxiety, hysteria, and depression in different conflict situations, feeling vulnerable..