Comparative study of believing in deserving of pain and punishment and access to self-harm-related mental associations in student with no suicidal self-injury and normal students

No suicidal self-injury is defined as direct and intentional damage to body tissue without intent to die. This behavior can have negative physical, psychological, and social consequences for the person. The aim of this study was to compare believing in deserving of pain and punishment and access to self-harm-related mental associations in students with no suicidal self-injury and normal students.

The study sample consisted of 223 students studying in high school in public schools of Tehran province that 63 students were self-injured and 160 students were non-self-injured. Subjects were selected by the purposive sampling method. Data were collected using Self-Punishment Scale (SPS), and self-injury Implicit Association Test (SI-IAT).

The results showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups, in believing in deserving of pain and punishment (p<0.05), But there was no significant difference between the two groups in the variable of mental associations related to self-injury.

Based on the results of this study, the mean score of self-punishment and believing in deserving of pain and punishment in self-injured people was significantly higher than non-self-injured people and can provide a new guideline for designing prevention and treatment programs for self-harming behavior.