Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury‐Related Differences in the Experience of Negative and Positive Emotion

Abstract

Objective Emotional experience is argued to contribute to the initiation and maintenance of nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI). We investigated whether individuals with/without a history of NSSI differed in their dispositional experience of negative and positive emotion, as well as their state responses to negatively and positively valenced movie clips. Method Undergraduates (n = 214, Mage = 21.33, 73.8% female, 35.5% reporting NSSI) completed measures of NSSI and dispositional emotional experience. Participants also viewed a sad and amusing movie clip and provided sadness/amusement ratings at seven time‐points. Results Relative to participants with no history of self‐injury, participants reporting NSSI indicated more reactivity, intensity, and perseveration of dispositional negative emotion; however, differences were negated after adjusting for mental illness. Unexpectedly, individuals with a history of NSSI responded less intensely to the sad clip, although they demonstrated perseveration of sadness over time. Participants reporting NSSI also indicated less reactivity, intensity, and perseveration of dispositional positive emotion and, in response to the amusing film, reported less amusement at all time‐points. Conclusions Considering different dimensions of negative and positive emotion may enhance understanding of NSSI. Future research should disentangle which dimensions of emotional experience are unique to NSSI and which are shared with mental illness more generally.

Perceived vs. Actual Emotion Reactivity and Regulation in Individuals With and Without a History of NSSI

“…However, a number of factors may account for the discrepancy between Boyes and colleagues' (Boyes et al, 2020) study and the current study. Most importantly, the measure of emotion reactivity for positive and negative emotions used by Boyes and colleagues (Boyes et al, 2020), the Emotion Reactivity Intensity and Perseverance Scale (Ripper et al, 2018), relied heavily on social comparison (i.e., "When exposed to a situation that would make the 'average' person experience this feeling, how likely is it that you will experience this particular feeling?") whereas the Emotion Reactivity Scale (Nock et al, 2008) used in the current study focused solely on participants' own experiences of positive and negative emotion reactivity.…”

“…Furthermore, differences in sample demographics may also account for this discrepancy in findings. Specifically, although the present study had an exclusively female sample of participants, Boyes and colleagues (Boyes et al, 2020) only had a majority of female participants (73.8%), which may have influenced findings given that studies have demonstrated potential gender differences in the experience of NSSI (e.g., Sornberger et al, 2012).…”

“…Interestingly, a recent mood induction study by Boyes and colleagues (Boyes et al, 2020) found that individuals with a history of NSSI did not report differences in self-reported negative emotion reactivity but reported significantly lower selfreported positive emotion reactivity when compared to those with no history of NSSI. Furthermore, when looking at positive and negative emotion reactivity in response to both a positive and a negative mood induction, individuals with a history of NSSI displayed lower emotion reactivity for both negative and positive emotions than those without a history of NSSI engagement.…”

“…Finally, Boyes and colleagues (Boyes et al, 2020) chose to recruit participants with a lifetime history of NSSI while controlling for their history of mental illness; meanwhile, the present study focused on women who had engaged in NSSI over the past 2 years. This is particularly important because research shows that emotion reactivity and regulation may differ as a function of the recency of NSSI engagement (i.e., lifetime vs. current); therefore, this may have contributed to the differences in results obtained across both studies.…”

“…In a related study, Boyes and colleagues (Boyes et al, 2020) used both a negative and a positive mood induction and found that individuals with a history of NSSI displayed significantly less emotion reactivity for both negative and positive emotions than those without such a history following the mood inductions. However, the authors did not investigate group differences for both negative and positive emotions within each mood induction valence type.…”