Exploring the longitudinal associations among fear of negative evaluation, self-disgust, and self-injury in Chinese adolescents: Disentangling between- and within-person associations.

INTRODUCTION

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal ideation (SI) are widespread mental health concerns among adolescents. As fear of negative evaluation (FNE) and self-disgust are also common psychological phenomena among adolescents, existing research suggests that there may be reciprocal predictive relationships between FNE and NSSI/SI with self-disgust playing a mediating role. This study aimed to investigate the reciprocal relationships between FNE and NSSI, as well as FNE and SI, and the mediating role of self-disgust.

METHOD

Random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) were employed. A total of 515 Chinese secondary school students (50.7% boys; baseline M = 12.31 years, SD = 0.81) completed self-report questionnaires regarding FNE, self-disgust, NSSI, and SI. The assessment was conducted in four waves, 6 months apart.

RESULTS

The results were as follows: (1) There were bidirectional relations between FNE and NSSI through self-disgust. (2) There was a unidirectional association from FNE to SI via self-disgust.

CONCLUSION

These findings have expanded the theoretical understanding of adolescent NSSI and SI, and highlighted the importance of offering personalized psychological counseling and therapy services at the intrapersonal level for adolescents.