WHY ADOLESCENTS BEGIN AND STOP NONSUICIDAL SELF-INJURY

Course overview

Course Description: This course is based upon material published in the International Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences and is available as an open access article. This study examined risk and protective factors for nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) among a large sample of Chinese community adolescents at two waves over a one-year follow-up period. We predicted the initiation and stop of NSSI by changes in various NSSI correlates in 4,782 school adolescents. Participants completed questionnaires assessing NSSI, emotional vulnerability, family invalidation, depressive symptoms, BPD features, unstable relationship, unstable sense of self, unstable mood, and behavioral impulsivity. Results showed that increases in depressive symptoms, unstable relationship, and behavioral impulsivity put adolescents at a significantly higher risk for future engagement in NSSI. On the other hand, decreases in depressive symptoms, hedonic impulsive behaviors and impulsive substance use made adolescents less likely to continue NSSI. This study indicated the importance of distinguishing risk factors from protective factors for NSSI among adolescents. This course on nonsuicidal self-injury is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. This course is appropriate for beginning, intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop their understanding of how to treat the adolescent population. The course material includes a brief literature review. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require clinical continuing education courses for license renewal. The course is based on a journal article which includes research. It contains statistical analysis and data that some clinicians enjoy reading and others do not. A major benefit of reading research based articles for continuing education is they provide practitioners with the latest findings in their field.