Self-Reported Experience of Self-Injurious Behavior in College Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to gain firsthand qualitative information about the experience of self-injurious behavior (SIB) by asking the 79 participants to describe their experiences before, during, and after SIB. Students with a history of SIB were separated into two groups: those students who self-injured only once and those who had harmed themselves multiple times. The most common experiences for both groups directly before SIB were feeling depressed, angry, and out of control, but the two groups reported different experiences during and after SIB.

Professional Counselors' Conceptualizations of the Relationship between Suicide and Self-Injury

“…Of those study participants who reported more than one episode of self-injury, nearly 60% also reported suicidal ideation. This figure is approximately twice that of persons who reported a single self-injurious episode (31.8%; Kakhnovets et al, 2010). These differing relationships in frequency rates between self-injury and suicidal ideation and attempts may be accounted for by the dissimilar sample populations.…”

“…Although it has long been believed that self-injury occurred almost exclusively among females (Laye-Gindhu & Schonert-Reichl, 2005), recent studies have reported similar prevalence rates for males and females (e.g., Lloyd-Richardson, Perrine, Dierker, & Kelley, 2007). This gender gap may be attributed to sampling patterns that do not include males (Kakhnovets, Young, Purnell, Huebner, & Bishop, 2010;Laye-Gindhu & Schonert-Reichl, 2005) and gender differences in types of self-injury (Klonsky & Muehlenkamp, 2007). Similarly, whereas there appears to be a greater prevalence of selfinjury among the White population (Gratz, 2006), some evidence supports higher rates among the Native American and Latino/a adolescent populations than among their White and Black/African American counterparts (Evans, Evans, Morgan, Hayward, & Gunnell, 2005).…”

“…In their survey of over 500 undergraduate and graduate students, Kakhnovets et al, (2010) found that15.7% of participants reported at least one episode of non-suicidal self-injury and that 8.5% of participants experienced suicidal ideation in the absence of a history of self-injury. Of those study participants who reported more than one episode of self-injury, nearly 60% also reported suicidal ideation.…”

“…Risk factors for suicide include broken homes, presence of mental illness in self or family, substance misuse, previous selfinjurious behavior (Hawton & James, 2005), low self-esteem, female gender, extreme weight control behaviors, early onset of puberty, recent attempts by a friend (Greydanus & Apple, 2011), conduct problems, non-heterosexual identity ) and childhood physical abuse (Fuller-Thomson et al, 2012). Established risk factors for selfinjury include abuse, substance misuse, low self-esteem, suicidal ideation, eating disorders (Kakhnovets et al, 2010), early sexual experience, non-heterosexual identity , and low income (Toprak et al, 2011). Although there are some similarities (i.e., substance misuse, low self-esteem, suicidal ideation, disordered eating, and non-heterosexual identity) across these risk factors, clear differences exist.…”

“…Early sexual experience is also recognized as a risk factor for self-injury, but, to these authors' knowledge, is not regarded as a risk factor for suicide. Those who repeatedly self-injure may be more likely to have a trauma history (Kakhnovets et al, 2010;Kerr & Muehlenkamp, 2010). Finally, people who repeatedly self-injure are more likely to experience suicidal ideation and substance misuse than those who self-injure only once (Kakhnovets et al, 2010).…”