CARACTERIZAÇÃO DA CONDUTA AUTOLESIVA EM ADOLESCENTES: um estudo descritivo

The paper is the result of research on self-injury in the transition from childhood to adolescence. The objective is to present and discuss the research results of a survey on the characteristics of self-injurious behavior among adolescents in the city of Volta Redonda/RJ. A Cross-sectional study with 61 pre-adolescents and adolescents assisted by the Specialized Reference Center for Social Assistance of both sexes, aged between 10 and 16 years old, with self-harm practice, seeking to collect data on the characterization of this behavior, sociodemographic profile and referrals made. Data analysis was conducted through the categorization of interviews, descriptive analysis of simple and relative frequency survey, and standard deviation. As a result, most participants are female (80.3%), between 13 and 14 years old (50.9%), who predominantly used sharp objects (88.5%), mainly affecting arms, hands, or wrists (94.1%). Family conflicts stand out (83.6%) as a motivation and the majority (50.8%) were not referred for treatment. With these results, the study had concluded that knowledge about the characterization of self-injurious behavior in adolescents is fundamental for the design of public policies for prevention and psychosocial assistance for adolescents.