Structural Pattern of Emotional Schemas with Adolescents' Self-Injury Behavior Based on Mediating Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies

Abstract Non-suicidal self-injury is a common mental health threat among adolescents. This study aimed to investigate the structural relationships between emotional schemas and adolescents' self-injury behavior based on the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies. The study employed a cross-sectional design, with the statistical population consisting of second high school students in Tehran during the school year of 2022–2023. In this study, 316 students were selected through multistage cluster sampling. Data were collected using a non-suicidal self-injury behavior questionnaire, emotional schemas, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in AMOS version 26 was utilized to evaluate the proposed model. The findings indicate that the proposed model fits the data. The results of SEM showed that adaptive emotional schemas have a direct and negative effect on adolescents' self-injury. Additionally, adaptive emotional schemas have an indirect positive effect through maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation and a negative indirect effect through adaptive cognitive emotion regulation on adolescents' self-injury. Moving forward, this study provides an account of cumulative knowledge for addressing the issue of non-suicidal self-injury in Iranian adolescents and may inform future prevention and intervention strategies.