The Effect Of Future Scenario Imagining On Intertemporal Decision-making In Non-suicidal Self-injured Adolescents

Adolescent non-suicidal self-injury is strongly associated with individual impulsivity,which is often quickly triggered and difficult to control,and is a major predictor of future suicide risk.Intertemporal decision-making can reflect key aspects of behavioral impulsivity.Intertemporal decision-making refers to the decision-making behavior that individuals take after weighing the costs,benefits and losses that occur in different periods.Research shows that future scenario imagining can significantly reduce individuals’ delayed discount rate in intertemporal decision-making.Future scenario imagining is projecting the self into the future and mentally experiencing in advance what the future is expected to happen.Current research suggests that imagining future scenarios may alter individuals’ behavioral performance on intertemporal decision-making tasks.However,previous studies have mainly focused on the impact of future scenario imagination on college students’ intertemporal decision-making,and less attention has been paid to the impact of future scenario imagination on non-suicidal self-injury adolescents’ intertemporal decision-making.Therefore,this study conducted two experiments to investigate the role of future scenario imagining in the intertemporal decision-making of non-suicidal self-injured adolescents,and to examine the intertemporal effects of imagining oneself in future scenario imagining versus imagining others in non-suicidal self-injured adolescents.Differences in decision making.Study 1 conducted psychological behavioral experiments through intertemporal decision-making tasks and future scenario imagining tasks to study the similarities and differences in intertemporal decision-making between non-suicidal self-injured adolescents and healthy adolescents,analyze the characteristics of non-suicidal self-injured adolescents’ inter-temporal decision-making,and discuss The influence of future scenario imagining on the intertemporal decision-making of non-suicidal self-injured adolescents;Study 2 explored the difference between the influence of "future self" and "future others" on the intertemporal decision-making of non-suicidal self-injured adolescents in the future scenario imagining task.The results of the study are as follows:(1)Compared with the normal control group,non-suicidal self-injured adolescents had impaired intertemporal decision-making ability,while the impaired inter-temporal decision-making ability of non-suicidal self-injured adolescents was significantly improved after future scenario imagining.(2)Imagining oneself in future scenarios significantly improved intertemporal decision-making in non-suicidal self-injured adolescents compared with imagining others in the future.This study draws the following conclusions: Positive future scenario imagining can effectively reduce the delay discount rate of non-suicidal self-injured adolescents,and personally relevant self-positive future scenario imagining has a greater impact on non-suicidal self-injured adolescents.This may provide some valuable reference for non-suicidal self-injury adolescents to relieve negative emotions,reduce impulsiveness,and reduce non-suicidal self-injury behaviors.