Civil plaintiffs often seek compensation for their psychological injuries. Yet little is known about jurors' preconceived notions (or schemas) for a prospective plaintiff's pain and suffering. The present studies examined (a) whether jurors have psychological injury schemas (Studies 1 and 2), (b) whether their existence and development vary by the…

Participants were 101 individuals with self-injurious behavior (SIB) and severe or profound intellectual disability who were matched by gender, age, and level of intellectual disability to controls. Persons with SIB were more likely to exhibit the challenging behaviors of physical aggression, property destruction, sexually inappropriate behaviors…

Research has identified a significant increase in both the incidence and prevalence of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). The present study sought to test both linear and non-linear cusp catastrophe models by using aversive self-awareness, which was operationalized as a composite of aversive self-relevant affect and cognitions, and dissociation as…

It has been suggested that people engage in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) because they (a) experience heightened physiological arousal following stressful events and use NSSI to regulate experienced distress and (b) have deficits in their social problem-solving skills that interfere with the performance of more adaptive social responses. However,…

This retrospective chart review study of 227 participants examined the psychiatric profiles of outpatient adolescents ages 12 to 19 years (M = 15.08 years, SD = 1.72 years) engaging in different types of deliberate self-harm (DSH) behaviors. Participants were divided into four groups: no deliberate self-harm (NoDSH; n = 119), nonsuicidal…

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is an epidemiologic surveillance system that was established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help monitor the prevalence of behaviors that not only influence youth health, but also put youth at risk for the most significant health and social problems that can occur during…

Surveyed 63 people with spinal cord injury (SCI) in either their first, second, or fifth year post-injury. Results indicated that perceived levels of self-esteem decreased following the SCI. Found that self-esteem was lowest in the second year of injury. Self-esteem may be connected to loss of employment. (RJM)