The Relationship between Cyber-Ostracism and Adolescents’ Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: Mediating Roles of Depression and Experiential Avoidance

Huimin Ding; Liyue Zhu; Hua Wei; Jingyu Geng; Feng Huang; Li Lei

doi:10.3390/ijerph191912236

Author(s)

Huimin Ding
Liyue Zhu
Hua Wei
Jingyu Geng
Li Lei

Detail(s)

Original language	English
Article number	12236
Journal / Publication	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume	19
Issue number	19
Online published	27 Sept 2022
Publication status	Published - 1 Oct 2022
Externally published	Yes

Link(s)

DOI	DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912236 Final Published version
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Attachment(s)	Documents 240434177.pdf Final Published version, 715 KB, PDF Publisher's Copyright Statement This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Link to Scopus	https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85139948998&origin=recordpage
Permanent Link	https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/publications/publication(9efce67d-0db7-446a-bd8b-91e4c42ed47e).html

Abstract

Based on the experiential avoidance model, the current study aims to test the relationship between cyber-ostracism and adolescents’ non-suicidal self-injury and to explore the mediating roles of depression and experiential avoidance. A sample of 1062 middle school students completed questionnaires on cyber-ostracism, depression, experiential avoidance, and self-injurious behavior. The results showed that cyber-ostracism, depression, experiential avoidance, and non-suicidal self-injury were positively correlated with each other. After controlling for gender and age, the mediation model test shows that cyber-ostracism was significantly and positively associated with non-suicidal self-injury. Depression and experiential avoidance mediated the relationship between cyber-ostracism and non-suicidal self-injury parallelly and sequentially. This study highlights the potential mechanisms of action between cyber-ostracism and adolescent non-suicidal self-injury and finds that cyber-ostracism is a risk factor for non-suicidal self-injury. This founding suggests that extra attention should be paid to the role of the online environment in addition to the offline environment experiences for the intervention of non-suicidal self-injury. © 2022 by the authors.