Citation

Kirtley OJ, Hussey I, Marzano L. Psychiatry Res. 2020; 295: e113572.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113572

PMID

33333438

Abstract

Exposure to the self-harm behaviour of others plays a role in individuals' own self-harm thoughts and behaviours, but there has been little consideration of the broader range of mediums through which exposure to self-harm related content may occur. N = 477 participants completed an online study, including questions regarding lifetime history of self-harm thoughts and behaviours and the frequency with which they had been exposed to self-harm via various mediums. Gaussian Markov random field network models were estimated using graphical LASSO and extended Bayesian information criterion. Bootstrapping revealed that exposure mediums with a direct connection to self-harm thoughts and behaviours were the internet (rrp = .34, 95% CI [.26,.42]) and in-passing 'miscellaneous' exposure (rrp = .14, 95% CI [.00,.23]). However, stability of the network centrality was low (expected influence stability = 0.52). The node with the greatest increase in expected influence within the network was miscellaneous "in-passing" exposure. In-passing exposure is an understudied exposure medium. Our results may suggest new types of exposure mediums for future research. Data were cross-sectional, so temporal relationships between exposure and behaviour could not be determined. Low stability of the networks suggests that future similar studies would benefit from larger sample sizes.

Language: en

Keywords

exposure; Self-harm; network analysis