Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Among University Students: Examining Emotion Regulation, Self-Control, and Social Learning

Due to reports of high rates of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among adolescents and young adults in the community, researchers have begun to examine the role of risk factor and social influence of NSSI on the initiation and maintenance of these behaviours among youth. Despite numerous reports of the social factors that surround youth who engage in NSSI, the need for a more comprehensive understanding about the learning mechanisms involved in NSSI engagement has arisen. The present study sought to examine differences between groups of self-injurers and non-self-injurers on the dimensions of emotion regulation and self-control, as well as the presence of social learning related to NSSI. Additionally, the present study directly examined the predictive power of each variable with regard to the likelihood of initial engagement in NSSI, as well as high frequency NSSI. A series of psychosocial measures were completed by first-year university students, and results were compared across groups of self-injurers and non-self-injurers. Results indicated that self-injurers differed from non-self-injurers in all three areas examined, reporting more difficulties in emotion regulation and lower levels of self-control in most areas. In addition, self-injurers reported a higher level of social learning in two of the three areas of social learning examined. For initial NSSI engagement, social learning was found to be the strongest predictor, with emotion regulation also predicting NSSI to a lesser extent. In contrast, emotion regulation was the only variable that significantly predicted a self-injurer's likelihood of engaging in high frequency NSSI. Neither social learning nor self-control played a role in the occurrence of frequent NSSI among self-injurers. It is possible that for some, the first episode of NSSI may be related to either social learning factors, emotion regulations difficulties, or both, whereas the same behaviour may continue at a high frequency for reasons more closely tied to its emotion regulatory benefits. This shift in functional reinforcement is explored in relation to recent publications in the field, and implications for researchers and service providers are discussed.