Age and gender effects on non-suicidal self-injury, and their interplay with psychological distress
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Authors
Wilkinson, Paul Oliver
Qiu, Tianyou
Jesmont, Ceit
Neufeld, Sharon AS
Kaur, Sahaj P
Jones, Peter B
Goodyer, Ian Michael
Publication Date
2022-06-01Journal Title
Journal of Affective Disorders
ISSN
0165-0327
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Wilkinson, P. O., Qiu, T., Jesmont, C., Neufeld, S. A., Kaur, S. P., Jones, P. B., & Goodyer, I. M. (2022). Age and gender effects on non-suicidal self-injury, and their interplay with psychological distress. Journal of Affective Disorders https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.03.021
Abstract
Introduction: NSSI (non-suicidal self-injury) is an important public health issue, with high
prevalence and associations with future mental illness and suicide. To date, no large single study
has tested age and gender effects on NSSI and their interplay with psychological distress.
Method: NSSI and psychological distress were ascertained by questionnaire in a community
study of 2368 young people aged 14-25; proportions at each age and of each gender were
approximately equal.
Results: There was a significant quadratic interaction between age and gender on last month
NSSI prevalence (p = 0.025): NSSI was more common in females ages 16-19, but there were no
significant gender differences at younger/older ages. General distress partially mediated the
effects of age and gender on NSSI. The association between general distress and NSSI was not
significantly moderated by age, gender nor their interactions.
Conclusions: Gender difference in NSSI is not a static gap, but evolves across time, widening in
mid-adolescence and disappearing by early adulthood. Part of the reason for that gender gap
being present at those ages is the increase levels of distress in young women at those ages. There
was no evidence that the effects of general distress on NSSI differed by age/gender.
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (095844/Z/11/Z)
Embargo Lift Date
2023-03-31
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.03.021
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/335326
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Licence URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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