Predicting the incidence of non-suicidal self-injury in college students.

BACKGROUND: Despite increased awareness that non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) poses a significant public health concern on college campuses worldwide, few studies have prospectively investigated the incidence of NSSI in college and considered targeting college entrants at high risk for onset of NSSI. METHODS: Using data from the Leuven College Surveys (n = 4,565; 56.8%female, Mage = 18.3, SD = 1.1), students provided data on NSSI, sociodemographics, traumatic experiences, stressful events, perceived social support, and mental disorders. A total of 2,163 baseline responders provided data at a two-year annual follow-up assessment (63.2% conditional response rate). RESULTS: One-year incidence of first onset NSSI was 10.3% in year 1 and 6.0% in year 2, with a total of 8.6% reporting sporadic NSSI (1-4 times per year) and 7.0% reporting repetitive NSSI (≥ 5 times per year) during the first two years of college. Many hypothesized proximal and distal risk factors were associated with the subsequent onset of NSSI (ORs = 1.5-18.2). Dating violence prior to age 17 and severe role impairment in daily life were the strongest predictors. Multivariate prediction suggests that an intervention focused on the 10% at highest risk would reach 23.9% of students who report sporadic, and 36.1% of students who report repetitive NSSI during college (cross-validated AUCs = .70-.75). DISCUSSION: The college period carries high risk for the onset of NSSI. Individualized web-based screening may be a promising approach for detecting young adults at high risk for self-injury and offering timely intervention.

Riding the emotional roller coaster: The role of distress tolerance in non-suicidal self-injury.

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) is the deliberate damage to one's bodily tissue without suicidal intent. The Emotional Cascade Model proposes NSSI functions as a distraction from 'cascades' of intense affect and rumination. Low distress tolerance is one factor thought to potentially amplify these cascades but has yet to be empirically tested. Using the Emotional Cascade Model as a framework, we investigated the moderating roles of rumination and distress tolerance in the relationship between affect intensity and NSSI. A sample of 400 university students between the ages of 17 and 62 years (M = 21.02, SD = 5.32) completed well-validated measures of NSSI, affect intensity, rumination, and distress tolerance. As expected, rumination was associated with history of NSSI but only among individuals who reported high levels of distress tolerance. Further, affect intensity was positively associated with NSSI frequency, but only at low levels of rumination and distress tolerance. These results provide promising insight into potential prevention and intervention initiatives that may target rumination and distress tolerance to reduce the likelihood and frequency of self-injury.

The associations between non-suicidal self-injury and first onset suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

BACKGROUND: Theoretical and empirical literature suggests that non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is an important correlate of suicide risk. The present study was designed to evaluate: (a) whether NSSI is associated with increased odds of subsequent onsets of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) independent of common mental disorders, (b) whether NSSI is associated with increased risk of transitioning from suicide ideation to attempt, and (c) which NSSI characteristics are associated with STB after NSSI. METHOD: Using discrete-time survival models, based on retrospective age of onset reports from college students (n = 6,393, 56.8% female), we examined associations of temporally prior NSSI with subsequent STB (i.e., suicide ideation, plan, and attempt) controlling mental disorders (i.e., MDD, Broad Mania, GAD, Panic Disorder, and risk for Alcohol Dependence). NSSI characteristics associated with subsequent STB were examined using logistic regressions. RESULTS: NSSI was associated with increased odds of subsequent suicide ideation (OR = 2.8), plan (OR = 3.0), and attempt (OR = 5.5) in models that controlled for the distribution of mental disorders. Further analyses revealed that NSSI was associated with increased risk of transitioning to a plan among those with ideation, as well as attempt among those with a plan (ORs = 1.7-2.1). Several NSSI characteristics (e.g., automatic positive reinforcement, earlier onset NSSI) were associated with increased odds of experiencing STB. LIMITATIONS: Surveys relied on self-report, and thus, there is the potential for recall bias. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides support for the conceptualization of NSSI as a risk factor for STB. Investigation of the underlying pathways accounting for these time-ordered associations is an important avenue for future research.

Experimental demonstration of a soft x-ray self-seeded free-electron laser.

The Linac Coherent Light Source has added a self-seeding capability to the soft x-ray range using a grating monochromator system. We report the demonstration of soft x-ray self-seeding with a measured resolving power of 2000-5000, wavelength stability of 10(-4), and an increase in peak brightness by a factor of 2-5 across the photon energy range of 500-1000 eV. By avoiding the need for a monochromator at the experimental station, the self-seeded beam can deliver as much as 50-fold higher brightness to users.

Farm-specific carbon footprinting to the farm gate for agricultural co-products using the OVERSEER® model.

The user inputs to OVERSEER® Nutrient Budgets (Overseer) allow farm-specific greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to be estimated. Since the development of the original model, life cycle assessment standards (e.g. PAS 2050) have been proposed and adopted for determining GHG or carbon footprints, which are usually reported as emissions per unit of product, for example, per kg milk, meat or wool. New Zealand pastoral farms frequently generate a range of products with different management practices. A robust system is required to allocate the individual sources of GHGs (e.g. methane, nitrous oxide, direct carbon dioxide and embodied carbon dioxide emissions for inputs used on the farm) to each product from a farm. This paper describes a method for allocating emissions to co-products from New Zealand farms. The method requires allocating the emissions, first, to an animal enterprise, separating the emissions between breeding and trading animals, and then allocating to a specific product to give product (e.g. milk, meat, wool, velvet) footprints from the 'cradle-to-farm-gate'. The meat product was based on live-weight gain. Procedures were adopted so that emissions associated with rearing of young stock used in live-weight gain systems, both as a by-product or a primary product could be estimated. This allows the possibility of total emissions for a meat product to be built up from contributing farms along the production chain.

Brain donation for schizophrenia research: gift, consent, and meaning.

The Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders's (NISAD) "Gift of Hope" Tissue Donor Program is a volunteer programme for people who wish to donate their brain when they die for neuroscience research into schizophrenia. Organ donation for purposes of research differs from transplant donation in a number of ways, most notably the absence of a single recipient. Within a particular community, however, (people with schizophrenia and their carers) the single recipient is replaced by a sense of shared experience and preventing suffering in others. Donors have an investment in the research.

DIStance-from-the PROtotype (DISPRO) personality assessment for children.

We examined a children's version of Broughton's (1990) DISPRO (DIStance-From-the-PROtotype), a multidimensional scaling approach to personality assessment. In this system, a score on a given trait dimension is derived from a subject's judgment about his or her similarity to or distance from a prototype - a hypothetical character who acts in trait-consistent or prototypical ways. The DISPRO assessment model employs eight equidistant trait categories from Wiggins's (1979) interpersonal circumplex. In this study, 74 children (M age = 7.3 years) were told stories about four same-sex characters who performed prototypical acts from a single trait category randomly selected from the circumplex. Results show the structure of children's ratings is remarkably similar to that obtained from adults, but children's ratings show a developmental trend. A sample of younger children (M age = 6) provided a unidimensional solution along a "good-bad" or nurturance continuum. Analysis of an older sample (M age = 8.5) revealed use of the two dimensions of dominance and nurturance commonly found in adult solutions. Significant validity coefficients for parent and teacher criterion measures (average r = .40) and adequate test-retest reliability (average r(tt)= .78) were found. Benefits unique to DISPRO, such as its ease of use and standardization of trait stimuli, are discussed.

Cognitive development, epistemic doubt, and identity formation in adolescence.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the part that nascent skeptical doubt plays in shaping the course of adolescent social-cognitive development. It is argued that the intellectual changes that accompany the acquisition of formal operational competence set in motion a series of developments that seriously undermine the typical adolescent's previous sense of epistemic certainty. An epistemic model is proposed, leading to the hypothesis that, in response to such doubts, young persons adopt one of several contrasting interpretive strategies, each of which dictates much about their subsequent solutions to the problems of identity formation and commitment. To evaluate these hypotheses, 96 high school aged young people were classified as being either concrete or formal operational. Those subjects who were clearly classifiable (N=70) were administered Adams' Objective Measure of Ego identity Status and the Epistemic Doubt Interview, which permits identification of realistic, defendedly realistic, dogmatic/skeptical, and rational epistemic stances. A relationship between cognitive and epistemic development was found. Only formal operational subjects appreciated the generic nature of the doubt undermining their epistemic certainty. Predictions regarding the anticipated relation between epistemic stance and ego identity status were supported, revealing that only postrealist epistemic stances were routinely associated with membership in the moratorium or achieved identity statuses. The results are taken as strong support for the claim that epistemic doubt plays a central role in shaping the course of adolescent social-cognitive development.

Relativism and stations of epistemic doubt.

This sequence of studies examined the role that relativistic thinking plays in the cognitive and social-emotional lives of adolescents. Study 1 introduces an assessment strategy and associated descriptive model employed in evaluating how 70 concrete and formal operational adolescents differently interpret and resolve problems involving competing knowledge claims. A second study explored the relations between the epistemic orientations evidenced by 61 of these subjects and their current level of identity development. Study 3 compared the epistemic assumptions of a group of 29 psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents with those of a matched group of normal controls. Results from these studies indicate that relativistic approaches to problems of belief entitlement are: a) routinely characteristic of most normal adolescents; b) available to formal operational, but not concrete operational individuals; c) associated with more mature ego-identity statuses; and d) typically absent in groups of psychiatrically hospitalized youth.