The addition of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) as a “Condition for Further Study” in the recent revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fifth Edition (American Psychiatric Association
2013) highlights a call for continued empirical endeavors aimed at determining risk and correlates of NSSI. NSSI is defined as a deliberate, self-inflicted injury in the absence of suicidal intent, with an age of onset typically occurring in adolescence around the ages of 12 and 14 (Nock et al.
2006; Shaw
2002). As such, the study of NSSI is particularly relevant in adolescent samples. Prevalence of adolescent NSSI engagement is at approximately 13 to 26 percent in community settings (Claes et al.
2014; Jacobson and Gould
2007) and as high as 82 percent in adolescent inpatient settings (Nock and Prinstein
2004). NSSI has been linked to a range of negative outcomes (Cawood and Huprich
2011; Ross et al.
2009), and particularly alarming is the associated increased risk for suicide (Andover and Gibb
2010; Glenn and Klonsky
2011; Nock et al.
2006). …
