Background / Aim. Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among adolescents is recognized as a significant public health concern. Adolescents with mental health problems are at especially high risk of NSSI. This research aimed to investigate possible differences in gender, age, emotional reactivity, and expression of psychopathological characteristics between two groups of adolescents within a clinical population where the main distinguishing factor was the presence/absence of NSSI. Methods. The observational study included a clinical sample of 111 adolescents treated at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychiatric Clinic in the Clinical Centre of Vojvodina. The following clinical scales were used to examine the differences between adolescents with and without NSSI: self-report questionnaires about emotional and behavioural problems (YSR, CBCL), emotional reactivity (ERS), and suicidality (STIBI). Results. A total of 58 adolescents had at least one episode of NSSI in the last year. NSSI group were older, also more females in NSSI. The first episode of NSSI to be 13.05 and the last episode 14.80 years. The most common methods of NSSI were cutting scratching and biting Adolescents with NSSI had higher scores on ERS and higher scores on internalizing, externalizing, and total scores on YSR, but there is no difference between groups regarding scores on the CBCL scale. Conclusion. Due to the results obtained to emotional and behavioural problems, adolescents with NSSI should have a detailed psychiatric assessment including social support, pharmacotherapy, and psychotherapy, to better understand NSSI and to help them to develop better coping skills.

Our study included 30 pairs of siblings aged 12-18 years; one sibling with and one without conduct disorder in each pair. The aim of the study was to assess individual characteristics of those siblings, i.e. to determine differences in psychological characteristics of the siblings with regard to locus of control, stress coping strategies and frequency and structure of behavioral problems and emotions. The results suggested significant differences in individual characteristics of children with conduct disorder and their healthy siblings. These results mainly confirm previous results of foreign research on a sample of our population. Exception of findings was related to strategies for coping with stress: religious behavior that didn’t turn out as a protective factor and avoiding confrontation and withdrawal which are shown as a protective factor. These results suggest the importance of individual psychological characteristics for the occurrence of conduct disorders and have implications in therapy and in preventive work with adolescents