Abstract: ObjectiveTo investigate the self-injurious behavior among rural stay-at-home middle school students and to probe its relationship with internal and external locus of control for the prevention and early intervention of self-injurious behavior among the students.MethodsTotally 3 402 students in four schools of Changfeng and Wangjiang counties of Anhui provinec were sampled.The locus of control and self-harm state were investigated.ResultsThe rate of total self-injurious behavior of the students was high.The rate of self-injurious behavior of stay-at-home middle school students was much higher than those of non-stay-at-home ones.The scores of the SCL-90 scale,the Nowicki-Stuickland Locus of Control Scale for Children of stay-at-home middle school students were much higher.The ordinal regression results showed that the left-behind feature,the higher grade,the self-report worse realtionship with farther,the external characteristic,somatization and hostile were the possible risk factors of the self-injurious behavior among the students.ConclusionThe stay-at-home middle school students are more external than the non-stay-at-home students,and the rates of self-injurious behavior and self-report symptom are higher.Measures should be made to protect the stay-at-home middle school students and to increase the quality of life among the students.