Background
Non-suicidal self-injury and childhood adversities
A specific distress-function relationship
Methods
Participants
Procedure
Ethical issues
Measures
Non-suicidal self-injury
Suicidal self-injury
Potentially traumatic life events and adversities
Trauma symptoms
Demographic information
Data analysis
Results
Variables | All | Girls | Boys |
---|---|---|---|
n = 771-816 | n = 437-465x | n = 331-348x | |
Demographic variables | |||
Born in Sweden | 746 (92.0) | 433 (93.3) | 310 (90.1) |
Parents’ born in Sweden | 607 (74.5) | 355 (76.3) | 250 (72.0) |
Theoretical education | 357 (43.8) | 213 (45.8) | 143 (41.1) |
Both parents working | 572 (74.2) | 324 (74.1) | 247 (74.6) |
Living with both parents† | 554 (68.2) | 309 (66.5) | 244 (70.9) |
Health-related variables | |||
Ever smoked | 461 (57.1) | 276 (59.6) | 183 (53.5) |
Ever tried alcohol | 648 (79.6) | 369 (79.4) | 276 (79.8) |
Ever used drugs | 129 (15.9) | 64 (13.8) | 64 (18.4) |
Has friend who has self-injured | 560 (69.3) | 379 (82.4) | 179 (51.9) |
Ever had professional contact* | 378 (46.8) | 250 (54.5) | 125 (36.2) |
Experience of interpersonal maltreatment and chronic adversity | |||
Bullied | 368 (45.1) | 233 (50.1) | 132 (37.9) |
Prolonged illness or handicap | 111 (13.6) | 63 (13.5) | 48 (13.8) |
Emotional abuse | 401 (49.1) | 274 (58.9) | 124 (35.6) |
Physical abuse by adult in family | 173 (21.2) | 116 (24.9) | 56 (16.1) |
Sexual abuse by adult in family or other | 121 (14.8) | 110 (23.7) | 10 (2.9) |
Parental chronic adversity+ | 466 (57.1) | 292 (62.8) | 171 (49.1) |
Multiple regression analyses
Variables | Automatic functions | Social functions |
---|---|---|
Frequency of NSSI | .49*** | .31*** |
Gender | .39*** | .18*** |
Suicide attempt | .47*** | .32*** |
Adverse Childhood Circumstances (ACC) during upbringing | ||
Bullied | .29*** | .22*** |
Prolonged illness or handicap | .12*** | .12*** |
Parental chronic adversity† | .20*** | .11** |
Emotional abuse | .41*** | .26*** |
Interpersonal Negative Events (IPE) | ||
Physical abuse by adult in family | .29*** | .28*** |
Sexual abuse by adult in family or other | .35*** | .25*** |
Symptoms of traumatic stress | ||
Depression | .73*** | .43*** |
Anxiety | .58*** | .42*** |
Anger | .44*** | .34*** |
Posttraumatic stress | .62*** | .42*** |
Dissociation | .62*** | .43*** |
Automatic functions | Social functions | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Block of predictors |
R
2
change
|
B
|
SE B
|
β
|
t
|
p
|
R
2
change
|
B
|
SE (HC)
†
|
β
|
t
†
|
p
†
|
1 Frequency of NSSI | .24*** | .05 | .01 | .18 | 6.79 |
<.001
| .09*** | .02 | .01 | .07 | 1.42 | .155 |
2. Gender (female) | .12*** | .95 | .27 | .10 | 3.53 |
<.001
| .03*** | −.21 | .42 | −.02 | −.50 | .617 |
3. Self-reported exposure to adversities | .13*** | .10*** | ||||||||||
Bullied | −.36 | .26 | −.04 | −1.42 | .157 | .25 | .35 | .03 | .70 | .483 | ||
Having made a suicide attempt | 1.78 | .34 | .14 | 5.29 | <.001 | 1.57 | .63 | .12 | 2.51 | .012 | ||
Physical abuse by adult in family | .57 | .29 | .05 | 1.99 | .047 | 1.42 | .53 | .12 | 2.68 | .008 | ||
Sexual abuse by adult in family or other | .39 | .34 | .03 | 1.14 | .254 | .77 | .56 | .06 | 1.37 | .170 | ||
Emotional abuse | .61 | .26 | .06 | 2.31 |
.021
| .12 | .37 | .01 | .31 | .755 | ||
Parental chronic adversity | .15 | .23 | .02 | .65 | .518 | −.21 | .31 | −.02 | −.67 | .505 | ||
Prolonged illness or handicap during upbringing | .75 | .32 | .05 | 2.34 |
.020
| .79 | .51 | .06 | 1.55 | .121 | ||
4. Self-reported symptoms of traumatic stress | .13*** | .06*** | ||||||||||
Depression | .34 | .04 | .40 | 9.37 |
<.001
| .03 | .06 | .03 | .49 | .622 | ||
Anxiety | .004 | .04 | .004 | .09 | .927 | .17 | .07 | .16 | 2.45 |
.014
| ||
Anger | −.04 | .03 | −.04 | −1.35 | .178 | .03 | .04 | .04 | .79 | .427 | ||
Posttraumatic stress | .02 | .03 | .03 | .66 | .512 | −.001 | .04 | −.002 | −.03 | .975 | ||
Dissociation | .11 | .03 | .14 | 3.61 | <.001 | .12 | .05 | .15 | 2.48 | .013 |