Daily Peer Hassles and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Adolescence: Gender Differences in Avoidance-Focused Emotion Regulation Processes

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the mediating role of rumination, experiential avoidance, dissociation and depressive symptoms in the association between daily peer hassles and non-suicidal self-injury among adolescents. Additionally, this study explored gender differences in these associations and tested whether the proposed model was invariant across genders. The sample consisted of 776 adolescents, of them 369 are males (47.6%) and 407 are females (52.4%), aged between 12 and 18 years old from middle and high schools in Portugal. Participants completed self-report questionnaires to assess daily peer hassles, rumination in its severe component (i.e., brooding), experiential avoidance, dissociation, depressive symptoms and non-suicidal self-injury. Path analysis showed that daily peer hassles indirectly impact on non-suicidal self-injury through increased levels of brooding, experiential avoidance, dissociation, and depressive symptoms. Results indicated significant gender differences in mean scores and path analysis. Male adolescents were more likely to engage in brooding and experiential avoidance in response to external distress (particularly, daily peer hassles), whereas female adolescents were more likely to engage in non-suicidal self-injury in response to internal distress (particularly, depressive symptoms). These findings suggest relevant preventive and intervention actions to address emotion dysregulation in adolescence, by teaching them acceptance and mindfulness skills as a way of coping with stressful experiences and internal distress.

Interaction of Health Literacy and Problematic Mobile Phone Use and Their Impact on Non-Suicidal Self-Injury among Chinese Adolescents

“…Regarding gender differences, we found that NSSI was more likely to occur in males, which was consistent with some previous studies [32,45], but there were also studies showing the opposite results [34,46]. This may relate to the impulsive personality that is significantly associated with males [47].…”

Depression symptoms as a mediator between social support, non-suicidal self-injury, and suicidal ideation among Arab adolescents in Israel

“…The relationships between perceived social support and suicidal ideation and NSSI were mediated by depression symptoms, supporting our second hypothesis (Baetens et al., 2015; Cho & Glassner, 2019; Plener et al., 2015). Previous studies indicated that adolescents who report being hassled by their peers on a daily basis have more depression symptoms, which enhance the risk of NSSI (Xavier et al., 2018). Similarly, depression symptoms were found to mediate the relationships between suicidal ideation and academic stress (Ang & Huan, 2006) or perceived social support (Shilubane et al., 2014) among adolescents.…”

Associations between stressful life events, non‐suicidal self‐injury, and depressive symptoms among Chinese rural‐to‐urban children: A three‐wave longitudinal study

“…As for the indirect effect of stressful life events on NSSI through depressive symptoms, we found in our longitudinal analysis that depressive symptoms played a full mediating role in girls, but not in boys. This finding is partially consistent with a previous cross‐sectional study, investigating the relationship between daily peer hassles and self‐injury, which indicated that girls are more likely to respond to daily hassles with depressive symptoms and subsequently engage in self‐injury than boys (Xavier, Cunha, & Pinto‐Gouveia, 2018). The full mediation effect of depressive symptoms suggests that stressful life events may not precipitate occurrences of girls’ NSSI directly, but rather through the impact that stressful life events have on their depressive symptoms, which in turn increase the risk of further NSSI for the emotion‐regulation function.…”

“…This vulnerability can be explained from neurobiological and physiological perspectives, as females usually have increased endocrine and/or arousal responses to stress compared with males (Bangasser & Valentino, 2014), and girls are usually more advanced in pubertal development than boys, which has been found to amplify the relationship of interpersonal stress and NSSI (Miller et al, 2018). Also, girls are more likely to experience a higher level of negative emotional response to stress (Xavier et al, 2018). When facing negative emotions, migrant boys adopted more positive cognitive emotion regulation strategies than girls did (T. Wang, Li, & Sun, 2012).…”