Janine Lüdtke1, Benedict Weizenegger2, Rachel Rauber3, Brigitte Contin4, Tina In-Albon5, Marc Schmid6. 1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Basel, Psychiatric University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: Janine.Luedtke@upkbs.ch. 2. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychiatry Baselland, Liestal, Switzerland. Electronic address: Benedict.Weizenegger@pbl.ch. 3. Department of Developmental Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: Rachel.Rauber@gmx.ch. 4. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychiatry Baselland, Liestal, Switzerland. Electronic address: Brigitte.Contin@pbl.ch. 5. Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany. Electronic address: in-albon@uni-landau.de. 6. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Basel, Psychiatric University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: Marc.Schmid@upkbs.ch.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is highly prevalent among adolescents and associated with various mental health problems and suicidality. Previous studies have found that certain personality traits are related to NSSI behavior, however only few studies examined personality traits in adolescents with NSSI. Our study aimed to assess the relationship between personality traits and emotional and behavioral problems in predicting repetitive NSSI among adolescents from a school sample. METHODS: Four hundred and forty-seven students (M=14.95years, SD=0.74, 52% male) completed self-report measures on NSSI, personality traits, and emotional and behavioral problems. RESULTS: The past year prevalence of occasional and repetitive NSSI was 4.9% and 6.3% respectively. Repetitive NSSI was significantly associated with female gender, higher levels of age, novelty seeking, harm avoidance, self-transcendence, antisocial behavior, and positive self and lower levels of persistence and self-directedness in univariate analyses. However, multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that only high levels of antisocial behavior and low levels of self-directedness significantly predicted repetitive NSSI. CONCLUSIONS: The association between a lack of self-directedness and NSSI emphasizes the significance of targeting self-directedness in psychotherapy by strengthening self-awareness, affect tolerance and emotion regulation, as well as establishing and pursuing long-term goals.
BACKGROUND: Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is highly prevalent among adolescents and associated with various mental health problems and suicidality. Previous studies have found that certain personality traits are related to NSSI behavior, however only few studies examined personality traits in adolescents with NSSI. Our study aimed to assess the relationship between personality traits and emotional and behavioral problems in predicting repetitive NSSI among adolescents from a school sample. METHODS: Four hundred and forty-seven students (M=14.95years, SD=0.74, 52% male) completed self-report measures on NSSI, personality traits, and emotional and behavioral problems. RESULTS: The past year prevalence of occasional and repetitive NSSI was 4.9% and 6.3% respectively. Repetitive NSSI was significantly associated with female gender, higher levels of age, novelty seeking, harm avoidance, self-transcendence, antisocial behavior, and positive self and lower levels of persistence and self-directedness in univariate analyses. However, multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that only high levels of antisocial behavior and low levels of self-directedness significantly predicted repetitive NSSI. CONCLUSIONS: The association between a lack of self-directedness and NSSI emphasizes the significance of targeting self-directedness in psychotherapy by strengthening self-awareness, affect tolerance and emotion regulation, as well as establishing and pursuing long-term goals.