Self-Injurious Behaviour: A Threat to Adolescence
Introduction Self-injurious behavior among adolescents has to be considered as a serious threat to the personality development during adolescence. Self-injurious behavior has been defined as an act of attempting to alter a mood or emotional state by inflicting physical harm serious enough to cause tissue damage to one’s body without leading to a result of death. The forms of self-injury vary and can include scratching, cutting, self-hitting and burning. Self-injurious behavior of adolescents was first reported in the Western countries especially in USA. But now this trend has been seen in India too, especially in the urban areas. School counselors often become aware of self-injurious behavior before parents, family members and persons outside the school setting. This is mainly because self-injurious behaviour becomes more visible in the school s...