The effect of a self-compassion focused integrated treatment on adolescent non suicidal self-injury: A randomized controlled trial

Objective: Treatments for adolescent non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) primarily focus on reducing self-injury behaviors directly, which remain limited in efficacy. Here, we propose a self-compassion-focused integrated training (SCFIT) project to reduce adolescent NSSI through three components: developing self-differentiation abilities of adolescents to block potential threats arising from depleting family environments, conducting self-compassion training to repair positive personal resources, and providing brief DBT skills training to directly alleviate NSSI.Methods: An additive component control design was conducted to test the treatment effect of SCFIT on 165 adolescents with NSSI. Mediation models further examined whether changes in self-compassion and self-differentiation served as mechanisms of this effect.Results: The results showed that compared with the DBT only group, there were more considerable reductions in self-injury behaviors (β = -1.16, p < 0.001) and depression symptoms (β = -0.37, p = 0.006) and significant improvements in psychological well-being (β = 2.51, p < 0.001) in the SCFIT group over the 8-week intervention, and the effects remained significant at 1-month follow-up. Mediation analyses indicated that changes in self-compassion and self-differentiation mediated the impact of intervention on changes in both NSSI and depression symptoms.Conclusions: The SCFIT project effectively reduced adolescent NSSI through blocking, repairing, and alleviating processes, offering encouraging and comprehensive evidence for future NSSI treatment.