Stress is a common experience for university students. Elevated stress with limited healthy coping capabilities may result in students turning to external resources such as substance use (alcohol and drugs) to cope. Undergraduate students (N = 5,917) were surveyed to examine the relationship between perceived stress and engagement in substance use coping. Results indicate that higher stress is associated with students' reports of unhealthy coping. Interestingly, reports of stress and substance use coping were higher in later university years. These findings suggest the need for increased efforts to integrate programming on healthy coping across all years in university.

Mindfulness is often part of treatment for non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI); however, there has been limited research examining the role of mindfulness in NSSI. Thus, the current study sought to investigate the relationship among mindfulness, depressive symptoms, and NSSI (past year) in adolescents (N = 764; 56.8% female, M age = 14.42, SD = 0.64) with consideration of gender. Adolescents with recent NSSI (n = 74; 83.8% female, M age = 14.36, SD = 0.56) and a matched for age and gender no-NSSI group completed measures of mindfulness and depression. Findings revealed that mindfulness and depressive symptoms were negatively correlated, although significantly less so for the NSSI group. Second, the NSSI group reported greater depressive symptoms and less mindfulness. Finally, mindfulness was found to partially mediate the effect of depressive symptoms on NSSI. The present study is the first to provide empirical support for the protective role of mindfulness in NSSI.

Research applying self-determination theory and the dualistic model of passion (DMP) has shown video games may satisfy basic psychological needs (i.e., competence, autonomy, and relatedness) and be identified as a passion. The DMP distinguishes between healthy or harmonious passion and problematic or obsessive passion (OP), with the latter reflecting an overreliance towards one's passion to obtain needs satisfaction. The experience of daily obstructions to needs satisfaction, or needs frustration (NF), may facilitate such an overreliance. This study explored how NF and both types of passion explain the amount of time that university students spend gaming. The overall association between NF and time spent gaming was not significant. However, for video game users with low levels of OP for gaming, there was a significant negative association between NF and time spent gaming. Additionally, evidence of a mutually reinforcing association between NF and OP for gaming indicates that a vicious cycle exists, whereby a strong OP for gaming predicts and is reinforced by greater NF. The theoretical implications are discussed.

Research has revealed that the push to engage in video games is in part the perception that they satisfy three basic psychological needs (competence, autonomy, relatedness). However, the pull toward a problematic style of video game engagement based on Internet Gaming Disorder symptomatology has been found to be explained in part by the daily frustration of these same needs. Currently, these two areas of gaming research have been conducted within separate studies. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to bridge these two theoretically compatible areas of research in exploring the interaction between gaming need satisfaction and daily need frustration in explaining problem video game use and gaming frequency. An online sample of 922 adults (59.1% males; Mage = 23.53 years; SD = 6.84) were recruited. Results revealed both gaming need satisfaction and daily need frustration positively contributed to gaming frequency and problem video game use accounting for 19.7% and 23.5% of their respective variances. Furthermore, gaming frequency and problem video game use were highest when both gaming need satisfaction and daily need frustration were high. The implications of these results are discussed within the context of current research and strengths-based clinical approaches.

Current theoretical frameworks posit that engagement in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is due to an inability to regulate one's emotions. In turn, mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to enhance emotion regulatory processes in those who engage in NSSI Objective. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether a brief mindfulness activity was differentially effective at increasing state mindfulness and decreasing stress following a stress induction task in university students with versus without a history of NSSI engagement.Method. The sample consisted of two groups of participants who identified as women: participants with a history of NSSI engagement (NSSI; n = 57; Mage = 20.09, SD = 2.05) and participants without (no-NSSI; n = 87; Mage = 20.22, SD = 1.94). All participants were asked to complete pre-intervention measures of state mindfulness and stress and were randomly assigned to either a mindfulness activity (body scan) or control task condition. Following the completion of their respective activities, a Stroop stress induction task was conducted and participants completed post-intervention measures of state mindfulness and stress.Results. Two 3-way mixed ANOVAs (Time X NSSI status X Condition) were conducted and revealed significant time by condition interactions for both state mindfulness, Wilk's Ʌ = .93, F(1, 140) = 10.70, p = .001, 𝜂 𝑝 2 = .07, and stress, Wilk's Ʌ = .97, F(1, 140) = 4.21, p = .04, 𝜂 𝑝 2 = .03. As such, both groups (NSSI/no-NSSI) demonstrated similar increases in state mindfulness and decreases in stress in response to the brief mindfulness activity following the stress induction. Implications for future research and practice will be discussed.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has consistently been associated with self-reported difficulties in emotion reactivity and the regulation of negative emotions; however, less is known about the accuracy of these self-reports or the reactivity and regulation of positive emotions. The present study sought to investigate differences between women with and without a history of NSSI on: (a) self-reported general tendencies of negative and positive emotion reactivity, (b) self-reported general tendencies of negative and positive emotion regulation, and (c) emotion regulation reported in response to a positive and negative mood induction. The sample consisted of 36 women with a recent history of NSSI within the last 2 years (Mage = 20.06; SD = 1.51) and a comparison group with no history of NSSI (n = 34; Mage = 20.15; SD = 1.54). Participants completed self-report measures of negative and positive emotion reactivity and regulation. In a separate session, participants underwent both a negative and positive mood induction using a counterbalanced design and reported their experienced emotions. Results from two-way MANOVAs and ANOVAs revealed those with a history of NSSI reported significantly greater difficulties in negative emotion reactivity and regulation than the no-NSSI comparison group; however, no group differences emerged in self-reported reactivity or regulation of positive emotions. In contrast, repeated measures ANOVAs on data from the mood induction task found no group differences in reactivity or regulation for either negative or positive emotions. These findings highlight the possibility that although individuals with a history of NSSI evaluate their ability to manage negative emotions as significantly worse than individuals with no history of self-injury, this may not reflect their actual emotion regulatory processes.

The transition to university is a stressful period for young adults; however, there has been limited research examining the predictive role of dispositional mindfulness in supporting first-year students’ adjustment to university. The current study sought to examine the relative contribution of gender, self-efficacy, perceived social support from friends and family, and dispositional mindfulness to domains of university adjustment (academic, social, personal or emotional, and institutional attachment). The sample consisted of 101 first-year university students (73% female; M = 18.20 years, SD = 0.79) and all data were collected using an online survey. Findings revealed dispositional mindfulness significantly predicted university adjustment even when controlling for self-efficacy and perceived social support. The present study is the first to provide empirical support for the protective role of dispositional mindfulness in university adjustment.

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