Background: The "Questions About Behavioral Function" (QABF) correctly identifies maintaining variables of challenging behaviour. However, for adults who have a long history of challenging behaviours, identifying one clear function of the maladaptive behaviour is difficult. Additionally, the person may develop multiple functions of their…

Professional school counselors experience unique challenges as they struggle to provide information to parents about self-injurious behaviors and methods to cope with adolescents who self-injure. This paper explores self-injurious behaviors, discusses some of the reasons why adolescents practice self-injury and recommends six strategies that…

This paper will examine possible extinction properties of behavior-specific manual restraint. It will analyze the possibility of extinction being produced via restraint with respect to the target behavior's possible environmental functions. The theoretical analysis will involve the analysis of behavioral properties of restraint during two temporal…

Several studies have demonstrated relationships between loneliness and numerous psychological and physical difficulties among college students. The purpose of this study was to examine whether loneliness might be a factor associated with increased risk of self-injury among college students. The findings did not support the hypothesis that…

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…

Although a number of investigators have adopted the O'Carroll et al. (1996) nomenclature and applied it in their studies, and others have acknowledged its role in highlighting the need for clarification of terms, the nomenclature has not been widely used in the research and clinical communities. The rationale behind the rebuilding of the O'Carroll…

This paper reports on the findings of a qualitative inquiry into the interactions on a nonprofessional self-harm message board. Individuals using the message board were very positive about the message board and appeared to feel that their needs for support, venting, and validation were being met. However, we found that negative harmful behaviors…

Emotional experiences immediately prior to (emotional antecedents) and following (emotional consequences) deliberate self-harm and suicide attempts in female inmates (N = 63) were examined. Anger was the antecedent emotion reported by the largest proportion of individuals who had engaged in deliberate self-harm (45.16%), suicide attempts (40.9%),…

Although seminal reviews have been published on acculturation and mental health in adults and adolescents, far less is known about how acculturation influences adolescent interpersonal and self-directed violence. This article aims to fill this gap by providing a comprehensive review of research linking acculturation and violence behavior for…

This paper reports on an empirical study concerning educational professionals' understandings of self-harm in primary school children. There is little research available about self-harm in primary-school aged children, and literature searches for the current study have revealed no research on primary school professionals' understandings of…

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…

Prior studies of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) suggest the existence of multiple NSSI typologies. Using data from 2,101 university students, this study employed latent class analysis to investigate NSSI typologies. Results show a good fitting 3-class solution with distinct quantitative and qualitative differences. Class 1 was composed largely of…

This paper proposes that an organism's integrated repertoire of operant behavior has the status of a biological system, similar to other biological systems, like the nervous, cardiovascular, or immune systems. Evidence from a number of sources indicates that the distinctions between biological and behavioral events is often misleading, engendering…

Exploratory factor analysis (varimax and promax rotations) of the aberrant behavior checklist-community version (ABC) in 275 individuals with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) identified four- and five-factor solutions which accounted for greater than 70% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis (Lisrel 8.7) revealed indices of moderate fit for…

The purpose of this study was to explore the meanings that self-mutilating behaviors have to adolescents. Phenomenological interviews of six students resulted in the development of seven core themes. The data provided valuable insight into the world of self-mutilation at its beginning stages. Implications for school counselors are discussed.