Lewis Stephen P, Collaton Joanna, Pugh Riley L, Heath Nancy L, Whitley Rob
University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada.
McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
BMC Psychol. 2025 May 26;13(1):563. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-02664-6.
Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) represents a prevalent and significant mental health difficulty experienced by young adults. Few efforts have explored lived experience perspectives concerning the impact of NSSI stigma, despite long-standing recognition that NSSI is highly stigmatised and recent calls for more research in this area. New insights would be fruitful in identifying which manifestations of stigma are most germane to people who engage in NSSI and what stigma-related supports they may need. Accordingly, the present study sought to understand lived experience perspectives regarding the impact of NSSI stigma.
A total of 97 young adults with a mean age of 19.32 years (standard deviation [SD] = 2.17) participated in the present study. Participants completed an online survey, including open-ended questions asking about how they have been impacted by NSSI stigma and how they believe people are generally impacted by such stigma. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse text-based responses.
Our analysis yielded four themes, namely: Shamed into Silence; Unspoken but Sensed Stigma; Anticipation and Avoidance of Stigma, Enduring Shadow of Stigma. These implicate internal forms of stigma - namely, self and anticipated stigma. Collectively, such stigma fomented a significant and often ongoing psychosocial burden involving shame and disclosure reluctance. Participants also perceived external stigma from others, highlighting both verbal and non-verbal considerations therein.
The current findings highlight several psychosocial consequences of NSSI stigma for individuals with lived experience. In this way, this study adds to a growing body of work illustrating the value of lived experience perspectives in NSSI research and has important implications for research, anti-stigma work, and clinical practice.
非自杀性自伤（NSSI）是年轻人中普遍存在且严重的心理健康问题。尽管长期以来人们都认识到NSSI受到高度污名化，且近期也呼吁在这一领域开展更多研究，但很少有人从生活经历的角度探讨NSSI污名的影响。新的见解将有助于确定哪些污名表现形式与从事NSSI的人最为相关，以及他们可能需要哪些与污名相关的支持。因此，本研究旨在了解关于NSSI污名影响的生活经历观点。
共有97名平均年龄为19.32岁（标准差[SD]=2.17）的年轻人参与了本研究。参与者完成了一项在线调查，其中包括开放式问题，询问他们如何受到NSSI污名的影响，以及他们认为人们一般如何受到这种污名的影响。采用反思性主题分析来分析基于文本的回答。
我们的分析得出了四个主题，即：因羞耻而沉默；未言明但能感觉到的污名；对污名的预期和回避；污名的持久阴影。这些主题涉及内在形式的污名，即自我污名和预期污名。总体而言，这种污名造成了重大且往往持续存在的心理社会负担，包括羞耻感和不愿披露。参与者还感受到来自他人的外部污名，其中突出了言语和非言语方面的因素。
目前的研究结果凸显了NSSI污名对有相关生活经历的个体造成的若干心理社会后果。通过这种方式，本研究为越来越多的工作增添了内容，这些工作表明了生活经历观点在NSSI研究中的价值，并且对研究、反污名工作和临床实践具有重要意义。
