NCJ Number
246463
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 43 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2014 Pages: 671-685
Date Published
April 2014
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Little is known about the development and maintenance of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) over time; however, identifying individuals at risk for NSSI onset or its recurrent engagement is of critical importance for developing effective prevention and intervention strategies. To address this important gap in the literature, the authors used a person-centered approach to study patterns of change among self-injurers (i.e., new beginners, recovered injurers, relapsers, desisters, and persistent injurers).
Abstract
Undergraduate students (N = 666, 71.1 percent female, M age = 19.15) from a mid-sized Canadian university participated in the two-wave study assessments were 1 year apart. Participants completed the Inventory of Statements about Self-Injury (ISAS, Klonsky and Glenn in J Psychopathol Behav Assess 31:215-219, 2009) at Time 1, and a measure of past year NSSI frequency 1 year later. Participants also completed several measures of psychosocial risk e.g., problem behaviors, problems with parents at both time points. Consistent with Nock's (Ann Rev Clin Psychol 6:339-363, 2010) model on the development of NSSI over time, individuals who continued to engage in NSSI across the university years (i.e., persistent injurers) reported greater levels of psychosocial risk as compared to those in the other groups. Moreover, a discriminant function analysis revealed that new beginners, relapsed injurers, and persistent injurers were differentiated from recovered injurers and desisters by increases over time in problem behaviors, problems with parents, internalizing behaviors, and suicidal ideation. The findings provide new insight into the course of NSSI engagement across the university years, and offer clinicians ways to discriminate among individuals with varying longitudinal patterns of NSSI (i.e., on measures of psychosocial risk, and motivations to stop self-injuring). Abstract published by arrangement with Springer.