Fanning the Flames: Emotional Avoidance Moderates the Impact of Negative Urgency on Non-Suicidal Self-Injury
Jose Luis Uribe Lopez
Department of Psychology
Faculty Supervisor: Sarah R. Holley
Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) poses a significant concern among emerging adults, often functioning as a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy (e.g., Wolff et al., 2019). Various emotion-related risk factors for NSSI have been identified. This includes negative urgency (i.e., the tendency to act rashly under emotional distress; Fisher-Fox et al., 2024), and emotional avoidance (i.e., the tendency to avoid emotion-inducing situations; Brereton & McGlinchey, 2019). Less is known, however, about how these risk factors relate. This study assessed whether emotional avoidance moderated the effect of negative urgency on NSSI in a sample of emerging adults. 621 undergraduate students (ages 18-25) participated in an online survey using well-validated self-report inventories. Analyses were conducted using the Hayes Process Model (Hayes, 2022), controlling for age and gender. Two models were run looking at the outcomes of 1) engagement in NSSI behaviors, and 2) use of NSSI as a regulatory strategy. Results showed significant main effects and interaction effects for both outcomes, indicating that those who were high in both negative urgency and emotional avoidance were the most at risk of engaging in NSSI behaviors, and for using them as a regulatory strategy. Results have implications for interventions aimed at reducing NSSI in emerging adults.