(PS9-B39) Negative Cognitive Style and Rumination Serially Mediate the Relationship Between Emotional Reactivity and Non-suicidal Self-injury

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a pressing mental health problem, particularly among young adults. As such, identifying specific vulnerability factors, as well as how they interrelate, is imperative for guiding prevention and treatment. Prior research indicates individuals who engage in NSSI have higher trait emotional reactivity (Nock, Wedig, Holmber, & Hooley, 2008), which refers to the propensity to experience high sensitivity, intensity, and persistence of negative emotions. Affect regulation models of NSSI posit self-injury may function to modulate emotional states including the attenuation of negative affect.

One possible mechanism underlying the relationship between trait emotional reactivity and NSSI is rumination. Rumination is characterized by a tendency to engage in passive, perseverative self-focus on negative stimuli and has been shown to exacerbate the effects of stressful life events (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 1993). Heightened negative emotional states likely elicit rumination which in turn amplify emotional intensity, leading vulnerable individuals to engage in ineffective attempts to down-regulate (Selby & Joiner, 2009).

The tendency to make negative internal, stable, and global attributions and self-inferences may confer greater risk for rumination in the context of emotional reactivity to stress. Termed negative cognitive style, this heightened trait propensity towards maladaptive thinking has shown robust relationships with trait negative emotionality (Mezulis, Funasaki, & Hyde, 2011; Rudolph & Mezulis, 2012), rumination (Ciesla & Roberts, 2007), and NSSI (Abela and Hankin, 2011; Wolff et al., 2014) among adolescents and young adults. Specifically, the relationship between trait negative cognitive style and NSSI may be mediated by rumination such that negatively valanced content is attended to, rehearsed, and elaborated on, leading to an exacerbation of distress and increased NSSI urges.

The current study conceptualized a novel integrated model of affective and cognitive vulnerability to NSSI among young adults. We predicted trait negative cognitive style and rumination would serially mediate the relationship between trait emotional reactivity and NSSI.

One-hundred thirty-five participants (80% female; 68% Euro-American) ages 18-24 completed measures of emotional reactivity (ERS), NSSI (FASM), negative cognitive style (CSQ), and rumination (RRS). Together, 37% reported NSSI during their lifetime, including 27.4% in the past year. The current study examined lifetime history and controlled for sex across all analyses.

Direct effects were analyzed in SPSS 29 using logistic and hierarchical linear regression. Results indicated trait emotional reactivity was associated with negative cognitive style (B = 0.69, p < .001), greater rumination (B = 0.43, p < .001), and lifetime reporting of NSSI (B = 0.55, p < .04, OR = 4.05). A serial mediation analysis conducted with Hayes’ (2022) PROCESS macro utilizing 5,000 bootstrap resamples showed a significant indirect effect of negative cognitive style and rumination on the relationship between trait emotional reactivity and NSSI (95% CI = 0.04 to 0.40). Results provide support for an integrated approach to the understanding and treatment of NSSI.