The Effect of Stress on Self-injury Behavior in Adolescents: Moderated Mediating Effect of Anxiety by Social Support

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a moderated mediating effect of anxiety through social support in the process of stress influencing self-injury behavior. The subjects of the study were 5,937 elementary, middle, and high school students from the Korea Youth Policy Institute's ‘2021 Mental Health Survey of Teenagers’ data, and the adjusted mediation effect was verified using the Macro Process for SPSS program. The research results are as follows. First, as a result of examining the mediating effect of anxiety in the relationship between stress and self-injury behavior, it was confirmed that anxiety has a mediating effect in the process of stress affecting self-injury behavior. The results of a bootstrapping analysis to verify the significance of the indirect effect of anxiety, a mediator, showed that the mediation effect was statistically significant. Second, as a result of conducting a moderating effect analysis to determine whether social support plays a moderating role in the relationship between anxiety, which is a mediating variable, and self-injury behavior, which is a dependent variable, it was found that social support has a moderating effect in explaining the relationship between anxiety and self-injury behavior. appear. Third, as a result of analyzing the moderated mediation effect of anxiety through social support in the process of adolescent stress influencing self-injury behavior, the results showed that anxiety was moderated by social support in the process of adolescent stress influencing self-injury behavior. The effect was found to be significant. Based on these results, we proposed measures to manage stress, reduce anxiety, and expand the social support system as part of an effort to reduce self-injury behavior in adolescents.