COMMUNITY CASE STUDY article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1618280
Influence of parental resilience on non-suicidal self-injury in adolescent cancer patients
Provisionally accepted
- The 923 Hospital of Joint Logistics Support Force of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Nanning, China
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Objective: To examine the effect of a structured, DBT-based parental resilience training program on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and related psychological symptoms in adolescents with cancer. Methods: This pre–post study without a control group enrolled 38 adolescent cancer patients (aged 13–18) with a history of NSSI, along with one of their parents. From March 2023 to May 2024, parents participated in a 4-week intervention consisting of three structured skills-training sessions (90 minutes each), weekly family group skills training, ongoing telephone counseling, and weekly consultations with a psychological support team. The Ottawa Self-Injury Scale was used to assess NSSI recurrence in adolescents. Anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescents were measured using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Parental resilience was evaluated with the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Results: All administered questionnaires were fully completed and valid, yielding a 100% response rate. Following the 4-week intervention, the recurrence rate of NSSI was 13.16% (5/38). Adolescents demonstrated significant reductions in both GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores from pre-to post-treatment (P < 0.05), indicating marked improvements in anxiety and depression symptoms. Parental CD-RISC scores increased significantly (P < 0.05), reflecting enhanced resilience. Subgroup analyses revealed that these improvements were significant across both genders and age groups (<15 years vs. ≥15 years), with no statistically significant differences in the magnitude of change between subgroups (P > 0.05). Conclusions: A short-term, DBT-based parental resilience training program may improve caregiver resilience, reduce adolescent anxiety and depression, and lower short-term NSSI recurrence in adolescents with cancer. However, the lack of a control group and short follow-up limit the generalizability of findings. Further controlled studies with larger samples and longer follow-up are warranted.
Keywords: resilience, adolescents, Non-suicidal self-injury, scale, influence
Received: 24 May 2025; Accepted: 26 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sang, Huang, Chen and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: YuFei Sang, The 923 Hospital of Joint Logistics Support Force of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Nanning, China
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