The death of a child is one of the most tragic events imaginable. Even more gut-wrenching is when a child intentionally chooses to end his or her own life in order to escape from unbearable suffering. Unfortunately, the occurrence of self-harm behaviors increases dramatically and occurs at elevated rates during adolescence (Nock et al., 2008), and…

Single-case experimental designs (SCEDs) provide a time- and cost-effective alternative to randomized clinical trials and offer significant advantages in terms of internal and external validity. A brief history and primer on SCEDs is provided, specifically for use in suicide intervention research. Various SCED methodologies, such as AB, ABAB,…

Prior research has examined the relations between various facets of emotion and psychopathology, with a great deal of recent work highlighting the importance of emotion regulation strategies. Much less attention has been given to the examination of emotion reactivity. This study reports on the development and evaluation of the Emotion Reactivity…

The authors developed the Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview (SITBI) and evaluated its psychometric properties. The SITBI is a structured interview that assesses the presence, frequency, and characteristics of a wide range of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors, including suicidal ideation, suicide plans, suicide gestures, suicide…

It has been suggested that people engage in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) because they (a) experience heightened physiological arousal following stressful events and use NSSI to regulate experienced distress and (b) have deficits in their social problem-solving skills that interfere with the performance of more adaptive social responses. However,…

Prior research consistently has shown a strong relation between childhood abuse and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), yet it is unclear why this relation exists. The authors examined 2 specific posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters as potential mechanisms through which childhood abuse may be related to NSSI. Participants were 86…

Suicide is a leading cause of death that is difficult to predict because clinical assessment has relied almost exclusively on individuals' self-report of suicidal thoughts. This is problematic because there often is motivation to conceal such thoughts. The authors tested the ability of the Self-Injury Implicit Association Test (SI-IAT), a…

Remarkably little is known regarding the temporal course of adolescent suicidal ideation and behavior, the prediction of suicidal attempts from changes in suicidal ideation, or the prediction of suicidal attempts after accounting for suicidal ideation as a predictor. A sample of 143 adolescents 12-15 years old was assessed during psychiatric…

This study examined rates, correlates and an interpersonal model of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) among a sample of 508 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Questionnaires assessing NSSI, related health-risk behaviors, and relationships with parents were administered two times over an 11-month period. Overall, 7.5% reported engaging in NSSI within…

The current article addresses the issue of warning signs for suicide, attempting to differentiate the construct from risk factors. In accordance with the characteristic features discussed, a consensus set of warning signs identified by the American Association of Suicidology working group are presented, along with a discussion of relevant clinical…

This study applied a functional approach to the assessment of self-mutilative behavior (SMB) among adolescent psychiatric inpatients. On the basis of past conceptualizations of different forms of self-injurious behavior, the authors hypothesized that SMB is performed because of the automatically reinforcing (i.e., reinforced by oneself; e.g.,…