Emotion Motives, Psychological Distress, and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: Temporal Patterns and Latent Profiles of Risk

<p><strong>Emotion motives may offer unique insight into the temporal relationships among psychological distress and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI; Hasking et al., 2017; Gross, 2015). Drawing on emotion regulation (ER) theories (Gross, 2015) and prior findings linking ER and NSSI (Taylor et al., 2018), I explored relationships among emotion motives, psychological distress, and NSSI severity and functions using large cross-sectional and longitudinal samples of first-year psychology students in New Zealand. Cross-sectional associations among psychological distress, emotion motives, and NSSI severity and functions were significant; however, longitudinal analyses identified fewer predictive relationships. Trying to experience positive emotions predicted slight decreases in NSSI, while trying to avoid negative emotions predicted increases in NSSI over time and marginally moderated baseline distress effects. Additionally, using latent profile analysis, I identified four distinct profiles that differed meaningfully in emotion motives and NSSI severity. Three profiles replicated prior findings (Bloore et al., 2020), aligning with expected levels of psychological wellbeing and NSSI. Unexpectedly, a pro-hedonic NSSI group emerged, marked by high psychological distress despite pro-hedonic emotion motives. Findings highlight the complexity of the ER-NSSI relationship and provide support for considering emotion motives in ER models (Gross, 2015). Clinical applications include tailoring interventions to emotion motive profiles, particularly targeting avoidance motives.</strong></p>