Emotional reactivity as a vulnerability for nonsuicidal self-injury in young adults: The moderating effect of emotion regulation

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) serves to regulate negative affect. To understand how emotional reactivity and emotion regulation contribute to NSSI, we examined these variables through questionnaires and laboratory manipulations in 25 recent NSSI-engagers and 25 non-engagers (Mage = 19.34, SDage = 1.02, 88% female). We hypothesized that participants with high emotional reactivity and poor emotion regulation would be most likely to have an NSSI history. We found that individuals with low levels of problem-solving were significantly more likely to engage in NSSI at high levels of RSA reactivity than individuals with high levels of problem-solving ( = 2.05, p = .02)