Personal traits of young men with self-injurious behavior and with subclinical depression

The article presents the results of empirical research studying the personal characteristics of young men with self-injurious behavior and subclinical depression. Relevance of this topic is conditioned by the frequency of self-injurious behavior. A general hypothesis of the study was the statement that there are significant differences in the intensity of personality traits in young men with subclinical depression who have a history of self-injurious behavior as opposed to young men with subclinical depression but without self-injurious behavior, and also opposed to the test audience without the symptoms of depression and self-harm. The survey sample consisted of 169 young men aged from 18 to 22 years (average age - 19.2). We applied the methods of testing, polling, subjective scaling, statistical analysis. In the group with subclinical depression and self-harm were noted low self-esteem, high levels of situational anxiety, personal anxiety, proneness to conflict, neuroticism, spontaneous aggressiveness, irritability, and emotional lability. Young men from this group demonstrated lower rates of inherent worth, self-acceptance, self-attachment, mirror self, and sociability than those with subclinical depression but without self-harm. A positive correlation was revealed between the severity of self-harm and situational aggressiveness, proneness to conflict, self-accusation, neuroticism, spontaneous aggressiveness, depression, low self-esteem; a negative correlation was found between the severity of self-harm and inherent worth, self-acceptance, self-attachment and the mirror self. There is a positive correlation between depression and cynicism, hostility, aggressiveness, anxiety, proneness to conflict, irritability, and low self-esteem, and a negative correlation between depression and sociability and openness.