Non-suicidal self-injury in a sample of university students in Tehran, Iran: prevalence, characteristics and risk factors

ABSTRACT Despite increased empirical and clinical attention to non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in Western countries, far less is known about NSSI in non-Western cultures. This study is the first to investigate the prevalence, characteristics and risk factors of NSSI in a sample of university students in Tehran, Iran. All participants (n = 554, mean age = 22.65, 57.2% female) were asked to self-report on NSSI over their lifetime. The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, and Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised were employed. A lifetime NSSI prevalence of 12.3% (n = 68) was found with no gender differences. Using logistic regression, lack of emotional awareness remained negatively significant for females after controling for anxiety, depression and suicidality; however, after controlling for the psychological symptoms, no relations were found between emotion dysregulation and a history of lifetime NSSI for male students. In a separate logistic regression, lifetime NSSI predicted suicide attempt above and beyond depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation across gender. Our results on the relations between emotion dysregulation and lifetime NSSI contradict the ample research in the West, emphasizing emotion dysregulation as a risk factor of NSSI and suggest that this relation might vary across cultures. The results are situated within the sociocultural context and compared and contrasted with Western data.