J Abnorm Child Psychol DOI 10.1007/s10802-014-9901-x
A Longitudinal Moderated Mediation Model of Nonsuicidal Self-injury among Adolescents Jianing You & Min-Pei Lin & Freedom Leung
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract This study tested a longitudinal moderated mediation model of the engagement in non suicidal self-injury (NSSI) based on Nock’s (2009) integrated theoretical model of the development of NSSI. We assessed general predisposing factors (i.e. borderline personality disorder features), precipitating factors (i.e. negative emotions), and NSSI-specific vulnerability factors (i.e. behavioral impulsivity and selfcriticism) among 3,600 Chinese secondary school adolescents (56.6 % females, aged between 12 and 18 years). Assessments were conducted for three times, 6 months apart. Results supported the longitudinal mediation model, such that negative emotions mediated the relation of borderline personality disorder features to NSSI. The moderating effects of behavioral impulsivity and self-criticism were both significant, indicating that adolescents with higher levels of both variables were more likely to engage in NSSI. Moreover, behavioral
This research was funded in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31300874) and South China Normal University Young Teacher Research Cultivation Grant (2012KJ013) awarded to Dr. Jianing You. This study was also supported by Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province and Research Center for Crisis Intervention and Psychological Service of Guangdong Province, South China Normal University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. J. You (*) Center for Studies of Psychological Application & School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China e-mail: [email protected] M.0.90. Good model fit was defined by the following criteria: RMSEA 0.95, CFI >0.95. Finally, we tested the moderating effects of BI and SC separately on the longitudinal mediation model. To test the moderating effect of BI, we used the residual centering approach proposed by Little et al. (2006). This approach includes two steps. In the first step, BI and the indicators of the first-order latent variables (i.e. ER, UR, and USIM of BPD features, and DASS-D, DASS-A, and DASS-S of NE) were multiplied and the resulting product is then regressed on BI and all first-order effect indicators. The residuals of these regression analyses were saved in the data set. In the second step, the residuals were used as indicators of the product variable in the latent interaction model. Significant coefficients of the paths from the product latent variable to the outcome variable indicate significant moderating effect of BI. The moderating effect of SC was tested using the same procedure. A detailed practical illustration of the residual centering approach can be found in Steinmetza et al. (2011). To examine whether BI and SC made additional contributions to the prediction of NSSI above and beyond those of BPD features and NE, we conducted a hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The dependent variable was Wave 3 NSSI total frequency. Independent variables included Wave 1 NSSI frequency at Step 1, Wave 1 BPD features (i.e. ER, UR, and USIM) and NE (i.e. DASS-D, DASS-A, and DASS-S) at Step 2, and Wave 1 BI and SC at Step 3. Descriptive and regression analyses were conducted using SPSS 20.0. The longitudinal moderated mediation models
were tested using EQS 6.1 (Bentler 2005). Missing data were handled using the Full Information Maximum Likelihood method.
Results Prevalence of NSSI Among the Wave 1, Wave 2 and Wave 3 samples, 10.3 % (n=559 out of 5,423), 12.7 % (n=869 out of 6,911) and 9.2 % (n=621 out of 6,831) of the participants endorsed one or more of the seven NSSI behaviors in the preceding 6 months, respectively. For all three waves, females (13.9 %, n=397 for Wave 1; 15.1 %, n=546 for Wave 2; 10.8 %, n=382 for Wave 3) were significantly more likely than males (6.3 %, n= 162 for Wave 1; 10.0 %, n=323 for Wave 2; 7.5 %, n=239 for Wave 3) to conduct NSSI [for Wave 1, χ2 (1, N=5,423)= 84.04, p < 0.001; for Wave 2, χ2 (1, N = 6,859) = 40.82, p
A Longitudinal Moderated Mediation Model of Nonsuicidal Self-injury among Adolescents Jianing You & Min-Pei Lin & Freedom Leung
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract This study tested a longitudinal moderated mediation model of the engagement in non suicidal self-injury (NSSI) based on Nock’s (2009) integrated theoretical model of the development of NSSI. We assessed general predisposing factors (i.e. borderline personality disorder features), precipitating factors (i.e. negative emotions), and NSSI-specific vulnerability factors (i.e. behavioral impulsivity and selfcriticism) among 3,600 Chinese secondary school adolescents (56.6 % females, aged between 12 and 18 years). Assessments were conducted for three times, 6 months apart. Results supported the longitudinal mediation model, such that negative emotions mediated the relation of borderline personality disorder features to NSSI. The moderating effects of behavioral impulsivity and self-criticism were both significant, indicating that adolescents with higher levels of both variables were more likely to engage in NSSI. Moreover, behavioral
This research was funded in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31300874) and South China Normal University Young Teacher Research Cultivation Grant (2012KJ013) awarded to Dr. Jianing You. This study was also supported by Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province and Research Center for Crisis Intervention and Psychological Service of Guangdong Province, South China Normal University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. J. You (*) Center for Studies of Psychological Application & School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China e-mail: [email protected] M.0.90. Good model fit was defined by the following criteria: RMSEA 0.95, CFI >0.95. Finally, we tested the moderating effects of BI and SC separately on the longitudinal mediation model. To test the moderating effect of BI, we used the residual centering approach proposed by Little et al. (2006). This approach includes two steps. In the first step, BI and the indicators of the first-order latent variables (i.e. ER, UR, and USIM of BPD features, and DASS-D, DASS-A, and DASS-S of NE) were multiplied and the resulting product is then regressed on BI and all first-order effect indicators. The residuals of these regression analyses were saved in the data set. In the second step, the residuals were used as indicators of the product variable in the latent interaction model. Significant coefficients of the paths from the product latent variable to the outcome variable indicate significant moderating effect of BI. The moderating effect of SC was tested using the same procedure. A detailed practical illustration of the residual centering approach can be found in Steinmetza et al. (2011). To examine whether BI and SC made additional contributions to the prediction of NSSI above and beyond those of BPD features and NE, we conducted a hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The dependent variable was Wave 3 NSSI total frequency. Independent variables included Wave 1 NSSI frequency at Step 1, Wave 1 BPD features (i.e. ER, UR, and USIM) and NE (i.e. DASS-D, DASS-A, and DASS-S) at Step 2, and Wave 1 BI and SC at Step 3. Descriptive and regression analyses were conducted using SPSS 20.0. The longitudinal moderated mediation models
were tested using EQS 6.1 (Bentler 2005). Missing data were handled using the Full Information Maximum Likelihood method.
Results Prevalence of NSSI Among the Wave 1, Wave 2 and Wave 3 samples, 10.3 % (n=559 out of 5,423), 12.7 % (n=869 out of 6,911) and 9.2 % (n=621 out of 6,831) of the participants endorsed one or more of the seven NSSI behaviors in the preceding 6 months, respectively. For all three waves, females (13.9 %, n=397 for Wave 1; 15.1 %, n=546 for Wave 2; 10.8 %, n=382 for Wave 3) were significantly more likely than males (6.3 %, n= 162 for Wave 1; 10.0 %, n=323 for Wave 2; 7.5 %, n=239 for Wave 3) to conduct NSSI [for Wave 1, χ2 (1, N=5,423)= 84.04, p < 0.001; for Wave 2, χ2 (1, N = 6,859) = 40.82, p
