The effects of childhood abuse, depression, and self-compassion on adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury: A moderated mediation model

Background: Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a widespread public health issue in adolescents. Exploring the risk and protective variables of NSSI is critical for prevention and intervention. Based on the experiential avoidance model (Chapman et al., 2006) and Nock's (2009) integrated model of NSSI, the current study tested a moderated mediation model to examine the impact of two risk factors, childhood abuse and depression, and one protective factor, self-compassion, on NSSI. Methods: Self-report measures were conducted among 758 Chinese adolescents (329 females and 429 males, mean age = 14.16 years, SD = 1.92) in Hong Kong, China regarding childhood abuse, depression, self-compassion, and NSSI. Results: Childhood abuse was found to be positively linked to NSSI, and this connection was mediated by depression. Self-compassion weakened the strength between childhood abuse and NSSI, along with that between childhood abuse and depression. Conclusions: These results assist in understanding how NSSI develops and facilitate future studies to investigate how the risk and protective variables for NSSI interact. The clinical application of these findings was also discussed.