School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Department of Psychology, Health Service Executive, Tullamore, Co. Offaly, Offaly, Ireland.
Early Interv Psychiatry. 2021 Apr;15(2):271-277. doi: 10.1111/eip.12936. Epub 2020 Feb 6.
Self-harm is common among adolescents and young adults and carries increased risk of suicide and other negative outcomes, yet only a small proportion will seek professional help. General practitioners (GPs) are a potentially valuable source of help as most young people visit their GP regularly for other reasons. The primary aim of this research was to explore GPs' empathy and attitudes towards young people who self-harm and how these are related to GP specialist training.
GPs completed questionnaires regarding their training, levels of empathy, perceived knowledge and attitudes towards young people who self-harm. The cross-sectional design included a random sample of 178 GPs and 47 GPs-in-training in the Republic of Ireland. Bootstrapped mediation analysis using structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied to explore the pattern of relationships among GP-training, empathy, perceived knowledge of self-harm and attitudes towards youth who self-harm.
The SEM results revealed that the model had a very good fit to the data. Empathy was the strongest predictor of attitudes towards self-harm even if GPs had received youth mental health training and fully mediated the effect of youth mental health training on perceived knowledge of self-harm. Specialized training in self-harm was a stronger predictor of perceived knowledge than empathy but had no association with negative attitudes.
The findings emphasize positive outcomes associated with GP training and highlight potential differences in the effects associated with specific vs general training in youth mental health. These differences may be used to inform the design and implementation of continuing professional development.
自残在青少年和年轻人中很常见，会增加自杀和其他负面后果的风险，但只有一小部分人会寻求专业帮助。全科医生（GP）是一个潜在的有价值的帮助来源，因为大多数年轻人经常因为其他原因去看他们的 GP。这项研究的主要目的是探讨全科医生对自残的年轻人的同理心和态度，以及这些同理心和态度与 GP 专科培训的关系。
GP 们完成了关于他们的培训、同理心水平、对自残年轻人的感知知识和态度的问卷。该横断面设计包括了爱尔兰共和国的 178 名普通 GP 和 47 名 GP 实习生的随机样本。使用结构方程模型（SEM）的自举中介分析来探索 GP 培训、同理心、对自残的感知知识和对自残年轻人的态度之间关系的模式。
SEM 结果表明，该模型非常符合数据。同理心是对自残态度的最强预测因素，即使 GP 们接受了青年心理健康培训，并且完全中介了青年心理健康培训对自残感知知识的影响。自残方面的专业培训对感知知识的预测力强于同理心，但与消极态度无关。
研究结果强调了与 GP 培训相关的积极结果，并突出了与青年心理健康的具体培训与一般培训相关的影响的潜在差异。这些差异可以用来为继续教育的设计和实施提供信息。
