Citation

Liu J, Wang H, Xing S, Liu X. Int. J. Clin. Health Psychol. 2024; 24(2): e100456.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Facultad de Psicología. Universidad de Granada, Publisher Asociacion Espanola de Psicologia Conductual)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijchp.2024.100456

PMID

38577656

PMCID

PMC10992695

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Repetitive Nonsuicidal Self-Injury (R-NSSI) is complex and prevalent in adolescents. Although the reward system is a promising mechanism to explain R-NSSI, the specific processes of reward and punishment related to R-NSSI remain unclear. This study examined whether adolescents with R-NSSI displayed difficulties in both reward and punishment contexts, and further explored the role of inhibitory control in processing monetary reward and punishment.

METHODS: Within a cohort from two middle schools (N = 3,475, 48.6 % female, M(age) = 12.95), a total of 187 adolescents completed three novel behavioral tasks. Specifically, in Study 1, 36 adolescents with R-NSSI and 28 without NSSI completed adapted incentive-delay tasks to evaluate sensitivity to reward and punishment. In Study 2, 27 adolescents with R-NSSI and 21 without NSSI were given novel incentive delay-two choice oddball task to evaluate the interaction between reward and inhibitory control. In Study 3, 38 adolescents with R-NSSI and 35 without NSSI completed similar task to assess the interaction between punishment and inhibitory control.

RESULTS: Adolescents with R-NSSI were characterized by higher levels of behavioral reward and punishment sensitivity than adolescents without NSSI. More importantly, the difference between reward and punishment in inhibitory control of R-NSSI was found. Compared to adolescents without NSSI, adolescents with R-NSSI showed lower levels of inhibitory control in response to cues depicting punishment content but not to those depicting reward content.

CONCLUSIONS: This study provides novel experimental evidence that heightened behavioral sensitivity to both reward and punishment may be relevant trait marker in R-NSSI among adolescents, and emphasizes that punishment not reward interact with inhibitory control in the R-NSSI.

Language: en

Keywords

Inhibitory control, Adolescence; Punishment sensitivity; Repetitive self-injurious behavior; Reward sensitivity