comparing theory of mind, emotion recognition, and suicidal ideation among adolescents with and without self-harm

Background: self-harm is a significant indicator of suicide attempts, with the likelihood of suicide increasing among adolescents who engage in frequent self-harming behaviors. addressing this issue is crucial. this study aimed to compare the theory of mind (tom), emotion recognition, and suicidal ideation among adolescents with and without self-harm. methods: the present study followed a causal-comparative design. the statistical population comprised all high school-educated boys and girls in the second half of the 2022 academic year in guilan. a total of 55 high school students were selected using a multi-stage cluster approach and purposive sampling methods. data collection instruments included the ekman 60-faces test (ek-60f), the tom scale, and the beck scale for suicidal ideation (bssi). eventually, the data collected from 55 individuals were analyzed through a one-way analysis of variance and tukey’s post hoc test by spss software, version 27. results: the group of boys with self-harm significantly differed from the group of girls without self-harm regarding the introductory tom variable using the tom (p<0.001). considering the variable emotion recognition, the group of boys with self-harm exhibited a significant difference compared to both the boys without self-harm and the girls without self-harm groups (p<0.001). for the suicide ideation variable, the boys with self-harm group demonstrated a significant difference when compared to the boys without self-harm and girls without self-harm groups (p<0.001). conclusion: the research discovered variations in tom, emotion recognition, and suicidal thoughts between teenagers who engage in self-harm and those who do not.