Self-injurious behavior in a relationship with demographic variables, traumatic events and self-capasity among university students

The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence of self-injurious behavior and self-injurious behavior in a relationship with traumatic life events, self-capacities and various variables in the university students sample. In this study, descriptive model is applied.The sample of this research is composed of students randomly selected from the population attending in the academic year of 2008-2009 of The Faculty of Education of Dokuz Eylul University which offers bachelor?s degrees in various programmes.In this study ?Ways of Coping Inventory?, ?Childhood Trauma Questionnaire?, ?Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory? and to collect information about various variables and self-injurious behavior, ?Personal Information Form?, developed by the researcher were used. The software SPSS was used for the analyses in this research.In the result of the research, self-injurious behavior among university students was found 21%. Self injurious behavior was significantly more frequent in boys than in girls. Students who engaged in self-injury reported more frequent childhood abuse than in those who had not. The level of self-esteem of students who engaged in self-injury found lower than in those who had not and it is found that students who engaged in self-injury use less positive ways of coping than in those who had not.