The Social Construction of Self-harm in the Changing Context of Educational System: A Qualitative Study of Female Students in the City of Yazd, Iran

The education system has faced significant functional/cognitive challenges in recent years, and many adolescents in schools face certain abnormalities in the face of these challenges. Among these abnormalities is self-harm. The main purpose and question of the present study is how the existing educational contexts construct this phenomenon.

 Methods and Data: 

In the present study, the qualitative approach and grounded theory method with Strauss and Corbin strategy were used and theoretical sampling continued until the data saturation. 23 high school female students in Yazd were selected and interviewed in depth about self-harm in the context of educational issues. 

The collected data were analyzed using open, axial and selective coding and presented in the form of story line (including 20 main categories and one core category) and paradigmatic model. The results of this study showed categories such as institutional phobia from educational system, wide power of schools, imposed parental guidance, distrust to school educational system, lack of parental support, personality humiliation, educational misconception, dull school atmosphere, educational discrimination and the other categories leads to the emergence of persistent hegemonic normative stress. 

In response to this phenomenon, adolescents in the school education system show certain functions, including self-harm, preference for employment over education and companionship with peers that these strategies make some consequences including academic decline and boredom, neurosis and physical ugliness. 

Key Message:

 Educational system has socio-psychological pressure on students and lead them to multi-dimensional stresses one of which is increasing self-harming.