The transactional relationship between over‐parenting and non‐suicidal self‐injury among Chinese and Belgian adolescents: A random intercept cross‐lagged study

Previous cross-sectional studies have linked over-parenting to adolescent non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), but within-person associations, especially across cultures, remain unexplored. This study investigated the transactional association between over-parenting and NSSI among Chinese (N = 596, M_age = 15.05, SD_age = 1.27) and Belgian (N = 213, M_age = 14.22, SD_age = 1.57) adolescents using a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) across three waves with a 3-month interval. The results revealed no significant within-person predictive effects between over-parenting and NSSI over time in either the Chinese or Belgian subsample. However, a significant between-person association was observed in the Chinese sample, but not in the Belgian sample. Multi-group RI-CLPM analysis indicated no significant cross-cultural differences in autoregressive and cross-lagged paths, nor in between- or within-person associations, suggesting cultural similarities. Potential mechanisms linking over-parenting to NSSI and directions for future research are discussed.