Aggression and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury among Depressed Youths: The Mediating Effect of Resilience

BACKGROUND: The global spread of COVID-19 not only exerted an enormous impact on the public in different countries but also aggravated depression among youths. The aggressive tendencies of depressed individuals can harm their body and life and threaten those of others. The aggressive and non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors of depressed youths may seriously affect their physical and psychological health if not identified and mediated promptly. METHOD: A total of 875 young respondents (including college students, community youths, migrant workers, and so on) from three provinces in China were surveyed in 2020 using a depression scale, non-suicidal self-injury scale, aggression scale, and resilience scale. RESULTS: Depression, non-suicidal self-injury, and aggression are significantly higher among the members of the depression group compared with the members of the healthy control group (P<0.001), and the resilience of the members of the former group is remarkably lower than that of the members of the latter group (P<0.001). Aggression among the depressed youths exhibits a significant positive correlation with non-suicidal self-injury (r= 0.43, P<0.01), whereas aggression (r= –0.18, P<0.05) and non-suicidal self-injury (r= –0.20, P<0.05) demonstrates significant negative correlations with resilience. The resilience of the youths in the depression group plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between aggression and non-suicidal self-injury. CONCLUSION: The more aggressive the behaviors of the depressed youths, the more serious their non-suicidal self-injurious symptoms. Furthermore, resilience plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between aggression and non-suicidal self-injury.