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Understanding Perceptions of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: Descriptive and Injunctive Norms

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Abstract

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a major public health concern. Web-based personalized feedback interventions (PFIs) may be a cost-effective and efficient way to treat NSSI. In order to develop a PFI, it is imperative to assess descriptive and injunctive norms. The current study examines descriptive and injunctive norms of NSSI within college students and adults in the community, comparing how perceived norms may differ for those who do or do not engage in NSSI. Study 1 calculated percentages of NSSI behavior within the student sample. Study 2 then examined perceived descriptive and injunctive norms between those with and without history of NSSI in both samples. Study 1 indicated that 19% of undergraduate students had histories of NSSI. Additionally, there was a general tendency to overestimate the percentage of people who engage in NSSI and the number of times a typical person engages in NSSI. Finally, those who engaged in NSSI believed that most people do not understand why individuals engage in NSSI; comparatively, the majority of people without history of NSSI still indicated that they understand why others would engage in NSSI. These research findings may be utilized in a PFI to reduce shame and NSSI behavior.

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Availability of Data and Material

The data that support the findings of the study are openly available on https://osf.io/3r4c8/.

Code Availability

The code that support the findings of the study are openly available on https://osf.io/3r4c8/.

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Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA

    Jiwon Min, Susanna V. Lopez, Delaney S. Dunn, Thad R. Leffingwell & Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt

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  1. Jiwon Min
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  2. Susanna V. Lopez
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  3. Delaney S. Dunn
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  4. Thad R. Leffingwell
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  5. Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Jiwon Min, Susanna V. Lopez, Thad R. Leffingwell, Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt; Data Curation: Jiwon Min; Formal Analysis: Jiwon Min; Funding acquisition: Stephanie N. Mullin-Sweatt; Methodology: Jiwon Min, Susanna V. Lopez, Thad R. Leffingwell, Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt; Project administration: Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt (lead), Jiwon Min (supporting); Resources: Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt; Supervision: Thad R. Leffingwell (supporting), Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt (lead); Writing-original draft: Jiwon Min (lead), Susanna V. Lopez (supporting), Delaney S. Dunn (supporting); Writing-review & editing: Jiwon Min, Susanna V. Lopez, Delaney S. Dunn, Thad R. Leffingwell, Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephanie N. Mullins-Sweatt.

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Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research board and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was deemed exempt and approved by the Institutional Review Board at the home institution.

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The study was deemed exempt by the Institutional Review Board since all participants were anonymous. Therefore, informed consent was waived by the Institutional Review Board.

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Min, J., Lopez, S.V., Dunn, D.S. et al. Understanding Perceptions of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: Descriptive and Injunctive Norms. Psychiatr Q 92, 1657–1671 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-021-09933-8

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