Impacts of difficulties with emotion regulation on the longitudinal relationship between peer victimization and changes in adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury

Abstract

Introduction: Research has found that peer victimization is associated with adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) behavior; however, most of these studies ignored the association between these constructs at the within-person level. Additionally, the association between peer victimization and NSSI may vary among adolescents with different personal characteristics. With a longitudinal design, this study investigated whether and how emotion regulation (ER) difficulties moderate the relationship between peer victimization and changes in NSSI, with particular attention given to the unique moderating role of different dimensions of ER difficulties.

Methods: The study sample comprised 3,561 adolescents aged between 10 and 17 years old (M_age = 13.22, SD = 0.85; 56.9% males). Self-report assessments were administered in December 2021 and June 2022 in Shanxi province, China.

Results: The latent change score model showed that the adolescent NSSI increased during our assessments, with peer victimization as a significant predictor. ER difficulties moderated the association between peer victimization and NSSI changes, but interestingly, in an unexpected pattern. Specifically, peer victimization significantly predicted NSSI changes among adolescents with low ER difficulties but not for those with high ER difficulties. Moreover, among the multiple dimensions of ER difficulties, only nonacceptance of emotional responses and limited access to emotion regulation strategies interacted with peer victimization to predict NSSI changes and showed interaction patterns similar to those at the overall level of ER difficulties.

Conclusions: The current study revealed the moderating role of ER difficulties in the relationship between peer victimization and changes in NSSI. These findings provide intervention implications for adolescents who engage in NSSI.

Keywords: Chinese adolescents; emotion regulation difficulties; latent change score model; nonsuicidal self-injury; peer victimization.