Explicit Motives, Antecedents, and Consequences of Direct Self-Injurious Behaviors
A Longitudinal Study in a Community Sample of Adolescents
Abstract
Abstract.Background: Self-injurious behaviors in adolescence are a serious public health concern. Aims: The current study aims to expand our understanding of motives for direct self-injurious behaviors (D-SIB). We examined the explicit motives but also the actual antecedents and consequences of D-SIB over time. Method: As part of the Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe (SEYLE) study, adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 years from Israel completed self-report questionnaires at baseline, 3-month, and 12-month follow-ups. Results: Decreases in social support predicted later increases in D-SIB, an effect mediated by negative affect. Both peer and parental support also exerted quadratic effects on D-SIB. Thus, low as well as high support predicted subsequent D-SIB. In turn, D-SIB was followed by increased peer and parental support. Limitations: Our methodology relies on self-reports, affected by social desirability and recall biases. Conclusion: The findings support a causal path for the development of D-SIB: from interpersonal distress to emotional distress and then to D-SIB. They also point to interesting avenues regarding subgroupings of adolescents who self-injure depending on their motives. Finally, our results reveal that D-SIB, although of negative import, might paradoxically be effective in serving certain functions such as gaining support from parents and peers.
References
(2011). Emotional dysregulation and interpersonal difficulties as risk factors for nonsuicidal self-injury in adolescent girls. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39(3), 389–400.
(2005). The two faces of adolescents' success with peers: Adolescent Popularity, social adaptation, and deviant behavior. Child Development, 76(3), 747–760.
(1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182.
(1996). Comparison of Beck Depression Inventories–IA and –II in psychiatric outpatients. Journal of Personality Assessment, 67(3), 588–597.
(2010). Differences in non-suicidal self-injury and suicide attempts in adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(3), 233–242.
(2002). Experimental avoidance and nonsuicidal self-injury in women with borderline personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 64, 198–202.
(2014). Life-time prevalence and psychosocial correlates of adolescent direct self-injurious behavior: A comparative study of findings in 11 European countries. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55(4), 337–348.
(2010). Perceived dimensions of parenting and non-suicidal self-injury in young adults. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(5), 484–494.
(2004). Validating the Beck Depression Inventory-II for Hong Kong community adolescents. International Journal of Testing, 4(3), 199–216.
(2009). Anger is an approach-related affect: Evidence and implications. Psychological Bulletin, 135(2), 183.
(2006). Solving the puzzle of deliberate self-harm: the experiential avoidance model. Behavior Reseach and Therapy, 44(3), 371–394.
(1992). Development and validation of a three-dimensional measure of drinking motives. Psychological Assessment, 4(2), 123–132.
(1961). The cry for help. New York, NY: Blakiston Division, McGraw-Hill.
(2009). Emotional disorders: Cluster 4 of the proposed meta-structure for DSM-V and ICD-11. Psychological Medicine, 39(12), 2043–2059.
(1997). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38(5), 581–586.
(2001). Measurement of deliberate self-harm: Preliminary data on the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 23(4), 253–263.
(2006). Risk factors for deliberate self-harm among female college students: The role and interaction of childhood maltreatment, emotional inexpressivity, and affect intensity/reactivity. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 76(2), 238–250.
(2005). Factors associated with ideation and acts of deliberate self-harm among 18-year-old boys. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 40(11), 912–921.
(2000). Deliberate self-harm in adolescents in Oxford, 1985–1995. Journal of Adolescence, 23(1), 47–55.
(2012). Self-harm and suicide in adolescents. The Lancet, 379(9834), 2373–2382.
(2009). Retrospective analysis of social factors and nonsuicidal self-injury among young adults. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 41(3), 180–186.
(2008). Longitudinal study of nonsuicidal self-injury among young adolescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 28(3), 455–469.
(2010). E-message boards for those who self-injure: Implications for e-health. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 8(4), 566–569.
(2009). The functions of self-injury in young adults who cut themselves: Clarifying the evidence for affect-regulation. Psychiatry Research, 166(2–3), 260–268.
(2009). Assessing the functions of non-suicidal self-injury: Psychometric properties of the inventory of statements about self-injury (ISAS). Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 31(3), 215–219.
(2008). Identifying clinically distinct subgroups of self-injurers among young adults: A latent class analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76(1), 22–27.
(2011). Acting out and self-harm in children, adolescents and young adults and mental illness 18 years later: The Longitudinal Upper Bavarian Community Study. The European Journal of Psychiatry, 25, 32–40.
(2005). Nonsuicidal self-harm among community adolescents: Understanding the "whats" and "whys" of self-harm. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 34(5), 447–457.
(2007). Characteristics and functions of non-suicidal self-injury in a community sample of adolescents. Psychological Medicine, 37(8), 1183–1192.
(2011). Depressive symptoms and deliberate self-harm in a community sample of adolescents: A prospective study. Depression Research and Treatment, 2011, 11.
(2006). Mediation analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 58(1), 593–614.
(2005). Self-injurious behavior as a separate clinical syndrome. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 75(2), 324.
(2013). Interpersonal features and functions of nonsuicidal self-injury. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 43(1), 67–80.
(2003). Popularity, friendship quantity, and friendship quality: Interactive influences on children's loneliness and depression. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 32(4), 546–555.
(2002). Affect regulation and addictive aspects of repetitive self-injury in hospitalized adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 41(11), 1333–1341.
(2004). A functional approach to the assessment of self-mutilative behavior. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72(5), 885–890.
(2006). Non-suicidal self-injury among adolescents: Diagnostic correlates and relation to suicide attempts. Psychiatry Research, 144(1), 65–72.
(2006). The role of clinical and social cognitive variables in parasuicide. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45(4), 465–481.
(1985). A subculture of parasuicide? Human Relations, 38(4), 257–297. 10.1177/001872678503800401
(2000). Peer functioning, family dysfunction, and psychological symptoms in a risk factor model for adolescent inpatients' suicidal ideation severity. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 29(3), 392–405.
(2011). High peer popularity longitudinally predicts adolescent health risk behavior, or does it?: An examination of linear and quadratic associations. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 36(9), 980–990.
(2003). Forms and functions of adolescent peer aggression associated with high levels of peer status. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 49(3), 310–342.
(1976). Inference and missing data. Biometrika, 63, 581–592.
(1998).
Emotional development: Action, communication, and understanding . In W. DamonN. EisenbergEds., Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed., Vol 3, pp. 237–309). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.(2012). The structure of depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms in primary care. Psychological Medicine: A Journal of Research in Psychiatry and the Allied Sciences, 42(1), 15–28.
(1987). Direct and indirect effects in linear structural equation models. Sociological Methods & Research, 16(1), 155–176.
(2006). Early predictors of deliberate self-harm among adolescents. A prospective follow-up study from age 3 to age 15. Journal of Affective Disorders, 93(1), 87–96.
(2012). Intrapersonal and interpersonal functions of non suicidal self-injury: Associations with emotional and social functioning. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behaviors, 42, 36–55.
(2001). The course of post-crisis suicidal symptoms: How and for whom is suicide "cathartic"? Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 31(2), 144–152.
(2010). Saving and empowering young lives in Europe (SEYLE): A randomized controlled trial. BMC Public Health, 10, 192.
(2006). The virtual cutting edge: The Internet and adolescent self-injury. Developmental Psychology, 42(3), 407–417.
(2009). Predictors of non-suicidal self-injury versus attempted suicide: Similar or different? Archives of Suicide Research, 13(2), 105–122.
. (2010). Global school-based student health survey. Retrieved from http://www.who.int
(2000). Parental representation in eating disorder patients with suicide. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 49(2), 131–136.
(2012). Exploring the reciprocal relations between nonsuicidal self-injury, negative emotions and relationship problems in Chinese adolescents: A longitudinal cross-lag study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 40(5), 829–836.
(1971). A rating instrument for anxiety disorders. Psychosomatics, 12(6), 371–379.
