Background: Self-injurious behaviour (SIB) is a serious condition, with implications for the person, their family and financial costs to the state providing care. The previously reported prevalence of SIB has ranged from 1.7% to 41%, or 1.7%-23.7% in community studies. There has been little study of remission rate, and incidence has not previously…

Over the past several decades, research has focused increasingly on developmental precursors to psychological disorders that were previously assumed to emerge only in adulthood. This change in focus follows from the recognition that complex transactions between biological vulnerabilities and psychosocial risk factors shape emotional and behavioral…

Although children and adolescents with developmental disabilities are said to have higher risks of abuse than those without, trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are little examined in those diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). Our study aims to assess trauma types, prevalence, risk factors and symptoms; and PTSD in…

The purpose of this study was to examine the correlates that define relational aggression among middle school girls, the relationships among these factors, and the association between the correlates of relational aggression and the type of relational aggression (e.g., verbal, withdrawal) exhibited among middle school girls. The findings of this…

Prior research has examined the relations between various facets of emotion and psychopathology, with a great deal of recent work highlighting the importance of emotion regulation strategies. Much less attention has been given to the examination of emotion reactivity. This study reports on the development and evaluation of the Emotion Reactivity…

This study evaluated whether dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was more efficacious than treatment by nonbehavioral psychotherapy experts in reducing co-occurring Axis I disorders among suicidal individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Women with BPD and recent and repeated suicidal and/or self-injurious behavior (n = 101) were…

Fatal and nonfatal intentional self-harm events in eight U.S. states were compared using emergency department, hospital, and vital statistics data. Nonfatal event rates increased by an estimated 24.20% over 6 years. Case fatality ratios varied widely, but two northeastern states' total event rates (fatal plus nonfatal) were very high (New…

Deliberate self-harm (DSH; i.e., nonfatal self-poisoning or self-injury) occurs much more frequently than suicide, yet there has been little detailed investigation of the comparative rates of DSH and suicide. We conducted a study of how rates of DSH relate to suicide rates across the life cycle by gender and by method of estimation of DSH rates,…

Background: Behaviour problems and a preference for adult contact are reported to be prominent in the phenotype of Smith-Magenis syndrome. In this study we examined the relationship between social interactions and self-injurious and aggressive/disruptive behaviour in Smith-Magenis syndrome to explore potential operant reinforcement of problem…

Compulsive, self-injurious, and autistic behaviors were examined in 31 boys and 29 girls with fragile X syndrome aged 5 to 20 years. Self-injurious behavior occurred in 58% of boys and 17% of girls, whereas compulsive behavior occurred in 72% of boys and 55% of girls and did not appear to be associated with self-injurious behavior. Fifty percent…

Research has identified a significant increase in both the incidence and prevalence of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). The present study sought to test both linear and non-linear cusp catastrophe models by using aversive self-awareness, which was operationalized as a composite of aversive self-relevant affect and cognitions, and dissociation as…

Background: Challenging behaviours are frequently a problem for people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). A better understanding of which individuals display which behaviours, at what rates, and the relationship of these behaviours to comorbid psychopathology would have important implications. Method: A group of…

Archival data (N = 1,048 women, 1,136 men) from a mental health survey of college students were used to investigate incidence of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), including cutting. Significant levels (defined as 4-5 lifetime incidents) were found in 9.3% of women and 5.3% of men. The Counseling Center Assessment for Psychological Symptoms (a global…

Background: Whereas much attention has been focused on adolescent risk behaviors such as substance use, much less has been devoted to self-injury in the general adolescent population. Purpose: This study had two purposes: (1) describe the prevalence of self-injury among early adolescents in the general middle school population, and (2) identify…

This study established the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Suicide Intent Scale (SIS) in a clinic- and community-based sample of 36 patients and 592 respondents, respectively. Results showed that the Chinese SIS demonstrated good inter-rater and test-retest reliability. Factor analysis generated three factors (Precautions,…