The authors surveyed 458 young adults and examined the relationships among stress, self-differentiation, and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). They conducted multiple regression analyses to explore whether characteristics of self-differentiation (i.e., emotional reactivity and "I position") were related to NSSI after controlling for the effects of stress, as well as whether emotional reactivity and I position served as mediators in the stress-NSSI relationship. I position and emotional reactivity both contributed statistically significant variance to NSSI after accounting for stress. Moreover, both I position and emotional reactivity served as partial mediators in the stress-NSSI relationship. The authors discuss counseling and research implications.

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Nine participants were interviewed about their experiences with unintentionally severe injury during engagement in nonsuicidal self-injury. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, we identified four common themes among participants: (a) explosive affect prior to unintentional injury, (b) loss of control during unintentional injury, (c) unfamiliar method, and (d) consequences of unintentional injury. Implications for research and practice are discussed.