Emotion regulation experiences of students with a history of non-suicidal self-injury: a reflexive thematic analysis

Objectives Individuals who engage in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) often report having emotion regulation difficulties. Given that context informs how people regulate emotions, we aimed to better understand the lived experiences of emotion regulation among students who have self-injured to clarify circumstances surrounding these emotion regulation challenges.Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 Australian undergraduate university students (seven female, one non-binary, and four male) between the ages of 18 and 39 (Mage = 23.25, SD = 5.64) with a history of NSSI. The interview transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.Results We generated four themes about participants’ emotion regulation experiences: The Worse I Feel, The Worse I Function (perceived conflict between intense negative emotions and both rational thinking and goal-directed behaviour); Regulatory Roles (costly reliance on maintaining social roles and productivity to manage emotions); Silence Can Be Safety (protective desire to contain negative emotions from others); and Emotions Make You Human (belief that accepting or expressing emotions may be healthier than suppressing them).Discussion The findings offer a more intricate perspective of how emotion regulation difficulties are implicated in NSSI, which can inform relevant theoretical and clinical approaches.