The Relationship Between Self-injury And Impulsivity In Chinese Undergraduates

Objective It is well known that self-injury not only is a healthy issue all around the world,but also is one of the most concerned problem in mental health area in recent years.Self-injury is an act that an individual deliberately/repeatedly uses different methods(e.g.,skin-cutting, stabbing,or hitting et al.)to hurt one's own body issue in the absence of suicidal intent,which is one of the strongest predictors of suicide.Undergraduates have been recognized as one of the highest incidence of self-injury population.Substantial literature has documented the important influence of impulsivity on self-injury,however,little is known about the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relationship.Method In order to examine the relationship between impulsivity and self-injury and to provide effective advice in the intervention of undergraduates' self-injury,two studies in a survey research method were constructed.In study 1,one way ANOVA was conducted to test the difference of demographic characteristics(gender and only child or not)in the level of self-injury;t-test was conduct to test the differences between self-injurious and no self-injurious individuals in the level of impulsivity,negative affect and family environment;to test bivariate correlations and multiple logistic regressions of impulsivity,negative affect,family environment and self-injury.In study 2,a moderated mediation model was conducted to examine whether negative affect mediated the relationship between impulsivity and self-injury,and whether this mediating process was moderated by the impact of family environment based on the affect-regulation model and the interpersonal/systemic model of self-injury.For this purpose,2270 undergraduates from Tianjin Normal University were recruited to participate in this study with Barratt Impulsiveness Scale,the Positive and Negative Affect Scale,Family Environment Scale and Adolescents Self-Harm Scale.Results The results were as followings:(1)As many as 15.1%freshmen reported at least once self-injury behavior in the past six months,and the level of self-injury between male and female was statistically different,but the level of self-injury between single child and non-single child wasn't significantly different;(2)The differences between self-injurious individuals and non-self-injurious individuals in the level of impulsivity,negative affect and family environment were significantly positive;(3)The relationship among impulsivity,negative affect,family environment as well as self-injury were significantly positive.Besides impulsivity,negative affect and life events positively predicted self-injury in the multiple logistic regression;(4)After controlled for gender,impulsivity significantly had a positive effect on self-injury;(5)The positive impact of impulsivity on self-injury was mediated by negative affect;(6)The mediating effect of negative affect and the direct effect of impulsivity were significantly moderated by family environment,which means that the family environment plays a role of "activator".When the impact of family environment is in high levels,it can accelerate the impact of impulsivity on self-injury.On the one hand,it can accelerate the direct effect of impulsivity on self-injury,and on the other hand,it also can accelerate the indirect effect of negative affect on self-injury.Conclusions These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the risk factors for self-injury.Impulsivity,negative affect and family environment might increase the occurrence of self-jury.On the one hand,the impact of impulsivity on self-injury is partly mediated by negative affect;therefore,more attention should be paid to negative affect and impulsivity and their roles in increasing the occurrence of self-jury.On the other hand,more attention should be also paid to family environment and its role in the occurrence of self-jury.