Predicting violence among individuals who engage in self-injury

The current study examined factors that may predict violent behaviour toward others among individuals who engage in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Females engaging in NSSI (n = 133) were recruited from online forums dedicated to NSSI behaviours. Contextual (i.e., relationship, employment, academic, and economic) and individual (i.e., borderline and antisocial personality features, treatment engagement, trait anger, impulsivity, distress tolerance, alcohol and drug use) risk factors were examined to determine which factors were associated with physical violence toward others in retrospective and prospective analyses. Antisocial personality features were uniquely associated with a history of violent behaviour; however, trait anger uniquely predicted violence over one year. Contextual factors were not significantly associated with violence. These data suggest that stable traits are particularly important in predicting future violence in this sample, and that individuals who engage in NSSI are similar to other, non self-injuring samples in terms of risk factors for violence.