Social Support, Psychopathology, and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: Specific Effect of Threatening or Deprivation Experiences

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a salient risk factor affecting one’s physical and mental health, and its association with adverse experiences has been widely recognized. However, based on the Dimensional Model of Adversity and Psychopathology, different dimensions of adversity (threat and deprivation) may have different effects on NSSI. Thus, identifying the specific effects of different adverse experiences on NSSI is of great importance for the development of intervention strategies. With a sample of Chinese college students ( n = 1,609), this study used latent category analysis to classify threatening and deprivation experiences, and structural equation modeling to examine the mediating roles of psychotic-like experiences and internet addiction between social support and NSSI across the threatening and deprivation dimensions, respectively. Compared to those without adverse experiences, participants with adverse experiences showed lower levels of social support, higher levels of psychotic-like experiences, higher degrees of internet addiction, and higher frequencies of both NSSI thoughts in the past 6 months and 1 year and NSSI behaviors in the past 6 months. Furthermore, adverse experiences were found to modify the effect of social support on NSSI thoughts, as social support was negatively associated with NSSI thoughts by reducing psychotic-like experiences in threatening experience group and deprivation experience group with unstable parent’s marital status; however, the protective effect of social support on NSSI thoughts and behaviors was not significant in deprivation experience group with emotional neglect. Family adverse experiences, especially threat experiences, may be a risk factor directly associated with NSSI and also play an important role in the development of NSSI among emerging adults.