Five-Year Follow-Up Study of Adolescents With Nonsuicidal Self-Injury

This study aims to examine the five-year evolution of NSSI and identify the predictive factors associated with its persistence.

Adolescents aged 12-18 years who attended a CAP outpatient clinic between 2014 and 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Those with a history of NSSI formed the study group, while those without NSSI comprised the control group. Of 126 adolescents with NSSI, 51 were successfully re-evaluated five years later.

The participants' mean age at T1 was M = 15.5 years, and at T2 it was M = 22.0 years. Adolescents who continued to engage in NSSI showed significantly greater difficulties in impulse control, body effectiveness, and identity diffusion compared to those who discontinued the behavior. In logistic regression analysis, identity diffusion and body effectiveness were significant predictors of persistence. Higher identity diffusion had nearly 18 times higher odds of maintaining NSSI (OR 17.99 95% CI [2.195, 147.418]), and those with higher body effectiveness had 1.4 times higher odds of persistence (OR 1.40 95% CI [1.115, 1.774]).

Identity diffusion showed the strongest association with persistent NSSI, whereas higher body effectiveness was modestly related to its continuation. These findings point to potential links between identity- and body-related processes and the long-term continuation of NSSI.