Representações sociais da automutilação por adolescentes de uma escola no interior da Bahia

Abstract

This research aimed to understand the social representations of self-harm among adolescents at a school in the interior of Bahia. This is a qualitative study based on the Theory of Social Representations. The choice to conduct a research in light of this theory is appropriate when one intends to study a phenomenon of social representations, in this case self-harm, a problem that aroused the researcher's interest, justified by its social, epidemiological and academic relevance. The study participants were 101 adolescents aged between 15 and 19 years, of which 72 (71.29%) were female and 29 (28.71%) were male, of which 22 stated that they had already practiced self-harm. The Free Word Association Technique was used to collect data, through the self-harm stimulus. In data processing, we used the EVOC (Ensemble de programmes permettant l analysing des evocations) software to construct the four-quadrant table in the direct order of evocations and analysis based on the Central Nucleus Theory, and IRAMUTEQ (Interface de R pour lés Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires) for descending hierarchical classification. The most important terms presented according to their hierarchies were depression, pain, anxiety, cuts and psychological problems, which constitute the central nucleus for the adolescents in this study. The evocations in all other quadrants complete the terms, in the sense of describing the associated risk factors, the feelings involved in the process, as well as pointing out the need to seek help both professionally and from the support network, such as family and friends. As an intervention activity, we partnered with an ongoing extension project, and formed a multidisciplinary team to plan self-care and care for others actions aimed at promoting mental health, teaching social skills and emotional management. Some actions have already been implemented. Finally, we reiterate the importance of conducting further research on this topic to broaden our reflections on the phenomenon of self-harm, with the aim of considering the association with sociodemographic variables, identifying triggering factors, developing and disseminating effective preventive strategies to support the work of health and education professionals, and assessing the impacts resulting from this behavior in adult life.