What’s Different About Those Who Have Ceased Self-Injury? Comparison Between Current and Lifetime Nonsuicidal Self-Injury

Abstracts

Objective

The current study aimed to investigate the sociodemographic and psychological variables as well as the function of NSSI related to the cessation of NSSI by analyzing the difference between those currently engaged in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and those who have stopped NSSI behaviors.

Methods

A total of 490 adults with a history of NSSI (359 females) were assigned to one of two groups: NSSI engagement within the last 12 months or “current NSSI” (n = 402) vs. no episode of NSSI in the previous 12 months or “lifetime NSSI” (n = 88).

Results

There were no significant group differences in sex or socioeconomic status, while individuals with current NSSI were slightly younger than those who had ceased NSSI behavior. Regarding the functions of NSSI, the current NSSI group endorsed more intrapersonal functions. Moreover, the participants who had ceased NSSI behavior reported significantly less perceived stress, dysfunctional attitudes, alexithymia, emotion reactivity, and suicidal ideation. On the other hand, the lifetime NSSI group showed greater psychological resources such as self-esteem, distress tolerance, and resilience.

Conclusions

We revealed apparent differences in NSSI functions, clinical symptoms, and psychological resources depending on the maintenance and cessation of NSSI. This study highlights the need for a better understanding of the factors that stop as well as those that continue NSSI behaviors.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The lifetime NSSI group reported less intrapersonal NSSI functions.

• The current NSSI group suffered from more clinical symptoms.

• Individuals who ceased NSSI had more psychological resources.

Keywords:

• Alexithymia
• nonsuicidal self-injury
• NSSI cessation
• NSSI functions
• self-esteem
• resilience

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

AUTHOR NOTES

Haeun Kim and Ji-Won Hur, School of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to ethical restrictions because we do not have the participants’ permission to share the data publicly. Instead, de-identified data will be made available to all interested researchers upon request from the corresponding author ([email protected]).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Brain Research Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF), funded by the Korean Government (MSIT) [No. 2017M3C7A1048040].