Date of Award
2008
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Abstract
Self-injury behavior is identified as the non-suicidal, deliberate infliction of a wound to oneself in an attempt to seek expression. Self-injury is becoming more prevalent in the adolescent population; however, many nursing professionals are unaware of this phenomenon and the implications it holds for nursing. Approximately 12 to 17 percent of adolescents deliberately injure themselves although accurate statistics are difficult to obtain due to the secret and private nature of the behavior. Nurses, especially those who care for adolescents, could benefit from an understanding of the implications of self-injury, the characteristics of adolescents who self-injure, the expressivity of the behavior, and the repetitive patterns of the emotions experienced by adolescents who self-injure. Six adolescent females were interviewed for this study. Their stories were shared in rich, descriptive narratives. Common themes emerged from the words of the participants and these themes described the essence of self-injury by cutting for adolescent females. The themes which emerged were living with childhood trauma, feeling abandoned, being an outsider, loathing self, silently screaming, releasing the pressure, feeling alive, being ashamed, and being hopeful for self and others. The general structure that emerged from a synthesis of the themes was that the experience of self-injury by cutting for adolescent females is one where they are struggling for well-being and hoping for more being by using their skin as a canvas upon which internal pain is expressed as tangible and real.
Extent
x, 159 p. : ill. (some col.).
Recommended Citation
Lesniak, Rhonda Goodman, "lived experience of adolescent females who self-injure by cutting" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2000 - 2009. 1504.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_5/1504
Identifier
FADT186289
Comments
by Rhonda Goodman Lesniak.|Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008.|Includes bibliography.|Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.|by Rhonda Goodman Lesniak.