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A Longitudinal Person-Centered Examination of Nonsuicidal Self-injury Among University Students

  • Empirical Research
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Abstract

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, we used a person-centered approach to study patterns of change among self-injurers (i.e., new beginners, recovered injurers, relapsers, desisters, and persistent injurers). Undergraduate students (N = 666, 71.1 % 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. Our 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).

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Notes

  1. Results were the same when we conducted the EFA with the larger sample. A confirmatory factor analysis using all of the study measures in AMOS 16.0 also supported grouping variables as presented in the method section [as indexed by model fit (i.e., chi-squire, RMSEA, CFI) and factor loadings].

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Acknowledgments

Teena Willoughby acknowledges funding received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Author Contributions

Both authors have contributed significantly to the manuscript and consent to their names on the paper. C.H. conceived the study, participated in the design and interpretation of data, and helped to draft the manuscript. T.W. helped conceive the study, participated in the design and interpretation of data, and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Brock University, 500 Glenridge Avenue, Saint Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada

    Chloe A. Hamza & Teena Willoughby

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  1. Chloe A. Hamza
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  2. Teena Willoughby
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Correspondence to Chloe A. Hamza.

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Hamza, C.A., Willoughby, T. A Longitudinal Person-Centered Examination of Nonsuicidal Self-injury Among University Students. J Youth Adolescence 43, 671–685 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-9991-8

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