Potential Mood Variation Following a Behavioral Analogue of Self-Injurious Behavior

Despite increased use of behavioral analogues to identify casual mechanisms of self-injurious behavior (e.g., suicide attempts; non-suicidal self-injury), little is known about the impact on participants. The current study examined the impact of a specific behavior analogue, Self-Aggressive Paradigm (SAP), on participant affect. Community participants (n = 507) reported several affective ratings before and after completing SAP task procedures. Following the SAP, participants reported reductions in nervousness and fear and increases in calmness and anger (d = .21). Participants with a current anxiety disorder reported greater increases in happiness; those with a suicide attempt history reported greater increases in sadness. Findings demonstrate the SAP has no adverse mood effects, supporting its use in experimental research.

Assessing Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in the Laboratory

The majority of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) research has used self- or clinician-rated measures of behavior which (a) are subject to reporting biases, or (b) have limited use in experimental designs that could illuminate causal relationships. Laboratory-based behavioral tasks have therefore been developed to assess NSSI-related behaviors more directly. We reviewed the behavioral methods that have been developed to assess NSSI tendencies or behaviors over the past 30 years. Several categories of laboratory analogues were identified: NSSI-related stimuli (e.g., NSSI pictures, implicit association tasks, guided imagery), experimenter administered pain stimuli (e.g., cold, heat, pressure, shock, and blade), and self-selected pain stimuli (e.g., cold and shock). These behavioral methods assess various aspects of NSSI and all have distinct advantages and shortcomings. Overall, these approaches have made significant contributions to the field complementing self- and clinician-ratings.

The Associations Between Children's and Adolescents' Suicidal and Self-Harming Behaviors, and Related Behaviors Within Their Social Networks: A Systematic Review

Social influences-including the suicidal and self-harming behaviors of others-have been highlighted as a risk factor for suicidal and self-harming behavior in young people, but synthesis of the evidence is lacking. A systematic review of 86 relevant papers was conducted. Considerable published evidence was obtained for positive associations between young people's suicidal and self-harming behavior and that of people they know, with those reporting knowing people who had engaged in suicidal or self-harming behaviors more likely to report engaging in similar behaviors themselves. Findings are discussed in relation to a number of methodological and measurement issues-including the role of normative perceptions-and implications for the prevention of suicidal and self-harming behavior are considered.

Suicide contagion: a systematic review of definitions and research utility

Objectives

Despite the common use of contagion to analogize the spread of suicide, there is a lack of rigorous assessment of the underlying concept or theory supporting the use of this term. The present study aims to examine the varied definitions and potential utility of the term contagion in suicide-related research.

Methods

100 initial records and 240 reference records in English were identified as relevant with our research objectives, through systematic literature screening. We then conducted narrative syntheses of various definitions and assessed their potential value for generating new research.

Results

20.3% of the 340 records used contagion as equivalent to clustering (contagion-as-cluster); 68.5% used it to refer to various, often related mechanisms underlying the clustering phenomenon (contagion-as-mechanism); and 11.2% without clear definition. Under the category of contagion-as-mechanism, four mechanisms have been proposed to explain how suicide clusters occurred: transmission (contagion-as-transmission), imitation (contagion-as-imitation), contextual influence (contagion-as-context), and affiliation (contagion-as-affiliation). Contagion-as-cluster both confounds and constrains inquiry into suicide clustering by blending proposed mechanism with the phenomenon to be studied. Contagion-as-transmission is, in essence, a double or internally redundant metaphor. Contagion-as-affiliation and contagion-as-context involve mechanisms that are common mechanisms that often occur independently of apparent contagion, or may serve as a facilitating background. When used indiscriminately, these terms may create research blind spots. Contagion-as-imitation combines perspectives from psychology, sociology, and public health research and provides the greatest heuristic utility for examining whether and how suicide and suicidal behaviors may spread among persons at both individual and population levels.

Conclusion

Clarifying the concept of “suicide contagion” is an essential step for more thoroughly investigating its mechanisms. Developing a clearer understanding of the apparent spread of suicide-promoting influences can, in turn, offer insights necessary to build the scientific foundation for prevention and intervention strategies that can be applied at both individual and community levels.

Combating weight-based cyberbullying on Facebook with the dissenter effect

Weight-based cyberbullying is prevalent among youth and adolescents and can have lasting negative psychological effects on the victims. One way to combat these negative effects is through modeling dissenting behavior. When a bystander challenges the bully or supports the victim, this models dissenting behavior. In this study, 181 participants were exposed to message manipulations posted on a Facebook page aimed at testing the conformity effect, the dissenter effect, and the bystander effect in response to enactment of weight-based bullying. Facebook is a common social media site where cyberbullying is reported. Results indicate that in the dissenting condition, participants' comments were significantly more positive or supporting for the victim, as compared to other conditions. This effect was more pronounced for men than for women. In addition, in the dissenting condition, men were less likely to consider the victim unhealthy than women and men in other conditions. These results support the effectiveness of efforts to model dissenting behavior in the face of bullies and extend them to online contexts. Implications are discussed.

Change and Stability in Active and Passive Social Influence Dynamics during Natural Drinking Events: A Longitudinal Measurement-Burst Study

We examined the link between social norms and active social influences occurring during natural social drinking contexts. Across 4 yearly measurement-bursts, college students (N = 523) reported daily for 30-day periods on drinking norms, drinking offers, how many drinks they accepted, and personal drinking levels during social drinking events. In contexts where drinking norms were higher, students were more likely to both receive and comply with drinking offers. These acute social influences were highly stable throughout college, but affected men and women differently across time: Women received more drinking offers than men, especially at the beginning of college and when norms were higher, but men complied with more drinking offers per occasion. These effects were not attributable to between-person differences in social drinking motives or drinking levels, nor to within-person patterns of situation-selection. The present work suggests that context-specific drinking norms catalyze active social influence attempts, and further promote compliance drinking.