Non-suicidal self-injury trajectories among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of parenting dimensions and stress reactions

Background: The literature on the trajectories of NSSI behavior during the pandemic is scarce and mainly short-term. Furthermore, studies have not explored the buffering mechanisms that may have altered risk trajectories during this vulnerable period. This study aims to analyze the univariate change of NSSI during adolescence and to examine the alteration of the univariate growth due to the time-varying effect of COVID-19-related stress, parenting dimensions (i.e., positive and negative parenting), and their interaction.

Methods: Participants included 830 Italian adolescents (44.2 % females; M_age = 14.52; SD = 0.80), who participated in at least one time point of data collection, from a three-wave longitudinal study (T1: from December 2019 to January 2020; T2: December 2020; T3: December 2021).

Results: The Latent Growth Curve Analyses show a linear increase in NSSI over time. In regards to time-varying, at T1, the results highlight that higher levels of negative parenting are associated with higher levels of NSSI at the same time point. Instead, at T2, results show that pandemic stress is associated with higher levels of NSSI at T2. Regarding the interaction effect, positive parenting significantly buffered the effect of COVID-19 stress on NSSI at both T2 and T3.

Limitations: Only some dimensions of parenting style (i.e., positive and negative parenting) are included.

Conclusions: This study attempts to deepen the trajectory of NSSI behavior during the two years of the pandemic and examine the changes caused by the time-varying effects, thus providing suggestions for designing programs to prevent engagement in NSSI.