Citation

Dawkins JC, Hasking PA, Boyes ME, Greene D, Passchier C. Stress Health 2019; 35(1): 39-48.

Affiliation

School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/smi.2837

PMID

30221443

Abstract

The recently proposed Cognitive-Emotional Model of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury draws on emotion regulation models and Social Cognitive Theory to understand the onset, maintenance, and cessation of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). We tested the prediction of the model that the relationship between emotional reactivity and NSSI is moderated by specific cognitions about self-injury (i.e. self-efficacy to resist NSSI, NSSI outcome expectancies), emotion regulation, and rumination. A sample of 647 university students aged 17-25 (M = 19.92, SD = 1.78) years completed self-report measures of the constructs of interest. As expected, we found that emotional reactivity was positively related to NSSI, particularly for people who had weak self-efficacy to resist NSSI. However, emotional reactivity was negatively related to NSSI for people who were more likely to use expressive suppression to regulate emotion. Implications for the theoretical understanding of NSSI are discussed.

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Language: en

Keywords

cognitive-emotional model of NSSI; emotion regulation; nonsuicidal self-injury; outcome expectancies; self-efficacy