Maladaptive Perfectionism and Adolescent Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury: A Longitudinal Moderated Mediation Model of Hopelessness and Self‐Concept Clarity

OBJECTIVE: The Benefits and Barriers Model of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) suggests that individuals with maladaptive perfectionism may be prone to negative self-views when facing failure, which may be associated with lowered psychological barriers to NSSI. Based on this framework, the present three-wave longitudinal study examined whether hopelessness mediated the association between maladaptive perfectionism and later NSSI, and whether this indirect association varied as a function of self-concept clarity. METHODS: = 13.27, SD = 0.74) participated in a three-wave longitudinal study with 6-month intervals. Maladaptive perfectionism and NSSI were assessed at baseline, hopelessness and self-concept clarity at the 6-month follow-up, and NSSI again at the 12-month follow-up. RESULTS: After controlling for gender, age, baseline hopelessness, and baseline NSSI, baseline maladaptive perfectionism was indirectly associated with NSSI at the 12-month follow-up through hopelessness at the 6-month follow-up. The hopelessness-later NSSI association varied by self-concept clarity and was weaker among adolescents with higher self-concept clarity. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that hopelessness may be relevant to understanding later NSSI among adolescents, and that self-concept clarity may help identify variability in the strength of the hopelessness-later NSSI association. Any prevention or intervention implications involving self-concept clarity should be considered tentative until future longitudinal, experimental, or intervention research determines whether changes in self-concept clarity precede changes in NSSI risk or produce downstream improvements in self-injury-related outcomes.