Off track or on? Associations of positive and negative life events with the continuation versus cessation of repetitive adolescent nonsuicidal self‐injury

Abstract

AbstractObjectiveThis study examined how patterns of repetitive (≥5 instances) nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) associate with measures of resilience and life events retrospectively reported to have occurred within the last year, 1 to <5 years ago, and 5 to <10 years ago.MethodLife events reported by 557 young adults (mean [SD] age 25.3 [0.68]; 59.2% women) were classified as positive, negative, or profoundly negative based on their relationship to participants' mental health and well‐being. We subsequently examined how these categories, together with resilience, were cross‐sectionally associated with reporting no NSSI, and the (full/partial) cessation/continuation of repetitive NSSI from adolescence to young adulthood.ResultsRepetitive NSSI in adolescence was associated with (profoundly) negative life events. Relative to cessation, NSSI continuation was significantly associated with more kinds of negative life events (odds ratio [OR] = 1.79) and fewer kinds of positive life events 1 to <5 years ago (OR = 0.65) and tended to be associated with lower resilience (b = −0.63, p = 0.056). Neither life events nor resilience significantly differentiated individuals reporting full or partial cessation.ConclusionResilience appears important for the cessation of repetitive NSSI, but contextual factors must still be considered. Assessing positive life events in future studies holds promise.