Investigating the mediating role of hopelessness in the relationship between alexithymia, impulsivity, distress tolerance, self-criticism and non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents.

Objective:

 The aim of this research was to Investigating the structural relationships of alexithymia, impulsivity, distress tolerance and self-criticism with self-injury in students with the mediating role of hopelessness.

this research was applicable and in regard to procedure, it was a correlation study. The study community included all male and female students of the high school of Ardabil City in 2021-2022, that among them 635 students selected as samples by multi-stage cluster sampling method. Research questionnaires included: Klonsky and Glenn's (2009) Self-Injury Report Scale (2009), Toronto alexithymia Scale-20 (2003), Kazdin's Children Hopelessness Scale (1986), Simons & Gaher's Distress Tolerance Scale (2005), Barrett's Impulsivity Scale (1950) and Thompson and Zuroff's Levels of Self-Criticism Scale (2004).To analyze the research data, the structural equation modeling method was used, which was performed using Lisrel 8.8 software.

The results showed that the standardized coefficient is the path of direct effects of alexithymia, impulsivity, distress tolerance and self-criticism with self-injury are significant at 0.01 alpha level (p < 0.01). Finally, the indirect coefficient related to the alexithymia, impulsivity, distress tolerance and self-criticism with self-injury by mediating the role of hopelessness were significant at 0.01 alpha level.

Considering that in alexithymia, impulsivity, distress tolerance, self-criticism and hopelessness are effective factors in self-injury without non-suicidal self-injury, Therefore, the findings of this research can greatly help prevent this behavior, planning educational treatment programs and treatment Designing therapeutic intervention