Boy crisis? Sex differences in self-injurious behaviors and the effects of gender role conflicts among college students in China

In Western research, self-injurious behaviors are commonly viewed as “feminine” behavior. In this present study, using the data from a survey administered to 960 first-and second-year students in Xi’an Jiaotong University in China, the self-injurious behaviors among college students are analyzed by sex. The results reported that the average prevalence of self-injurious behaviors among male students is 35.2%, higher than the 20.4% observed among female students (p < .1), and the average frequency of severe self-injurious behaviors among male students is 0.4, higher than the 0.18 reported among female students (p < .05). Gender role conflicts and verbal violence are strongly associated with male students’ self-injurious behaviors, whereas gender role conflicts and verbal, visual, and sexual violence are strongly associated with female students’ self-injurious behaviors. This suggests that self-injurious behaviors among college students in China constitute, to some extent, a boy crisis that can be well explained by gender role conflicts. In addition, verbal violence leads to self-injurious behaviors among both male and female students, whereas visual and sexual violence lead to self-injurious behaviors only among female students.