Autor(es): Gonçalves, Sónia ; Moreira, Célia ; Machado, Bárbara ; Fernandes, Susana ; Silva, Jessica
Data: 2024
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/47209
Origem: Veritati - Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Assunto(s): College students; Depressive symptomatology; Emotion dysregulation; Non-suicidal self-injurious; Self-criticism
Introduction: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is common among college students and is best understood as a self-soothing method for dealing with aversive emotional states. Aims: To analyse the pathway that sustains the association between NSSI, depressive symptomatology, emotion dysregulation and self-criticism in college students. Method: Three hundred eighty-five students (85.2% females) between 18 and 35 years old (M=20.71; SD=2.80) were evaluated. Results: In the non-NSSI and past-NSSI groups, higher depression increases self-criticism without impairing emotional regulation, a result that was not observed in the current-NSSI group. Therefore, emotion regulation mediated the relationship between depression and self-criticism, but only for the participants with current NSSI. Discussion: NSSI constitute a public health problem during college years. Overall, depressive symptomatology, emotional dysregulation, and self-criticism seem to contribute to a risk profile for the presence and maintenance of NSSI, thus being important for prevention, identification, and clinical intervention on university campuses.
