The Impact of a School-based Self-injury Prevention Program on Adolescent Girls' Risk-Taking and Metaemotions

Abstract

The aim of this study was to ascertain the impact of a school-based self-injury prevention program on adolescents’ risk taking and metaemotions. The study has an applied objective and a quasi-experimental design, with experimental and control groups and follow-up. In 2019-2020, the statistical population comprised all adolescent females attending Rasht schools who had self-inflicted at least once. The sample consisted of 34 adolescents who had self-inflicted injuries and had been randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Data was collected using two scales: “Iranian adolescents’ risk” (IARS) and meta-emotion (MS). The experimental group received 16 sessions of self-injury prevention training (twice per week), while the control group received no training. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA and SPSS-25 software. P <0.001 indicated a significant effect of the training program on decreasing risk taking, negative emotion, and increasing positive emotion. During the follow-up phase, the risk-taking variable and the subcomponent of interest in metaemotion were not positively affected by the components of alcohol orientation, relationship to sexual orientation and behavior, and orientation to the opposite sex. Effectiveness of an educational package consisting of emotion regulation training, cognitive reconstruction, and… in reducing risk, reducing negative metaemotions, and increasing positive metaemotions in adolescent females. According to the results, interventions can be recommended to prevent self-injury in schools.

Keywords

• meta-emotion
• school
• self-injury
• risk-taking