An RDoC-based approach to adolescent self-injurious thoughts and behaviors: The interactive role of social affiliation and cardiac arousal

Recent theoretical models have posited that increases in self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) during adolescence may be linked to failures in biological stress regulation in contexts of social stress. However, there is a lack of data examining this hypothesis during the transition to adolescence, a sensitive period of development characterized by changes across socioaffective and psychophysiological domains. Building on principles from developmental psychopathology and the RDoC framework, the present study used a longitudinal design in a sample of 147 adolescents to test whether interactions among experiences of social (i.e., parent and peer) conflict and cardiac arousal (i.e., resting heart rate) predicted adolescents' engagement in SITBs (i.e., nonsuicidal self-injury, NSSI; and suicidal ideation; SI) across 1-year follow-up. Prospective analyses revealed that adolescents experiencing a combination of greater peer, but not family, conflict and higher cardiac arousal at baseline showed significant longitudinal increases in NSSI. In contrast, social conflict did not interact with cardiac arousal to predict future SI. Findings indicate that greater peer-related interpersonal stress in adolescents may increase risk for future NSSI among youth with physiological vulnerabilities (i.e., higher resting heart rate) that may be markers of maladaptive stress responses. Future research should examine these processes at finer timescales to elucidate whether these factors are proximal predictors of within-day SITBs.

Automated summary

Recent theoretical models suggest that failures in biological stress regulation in contexts of social stress may be related to increases in self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) during adolescence. This study used a longitudinal design to examine the interaction between social conflict and cardiac arousal in predicting adolescents' engagement in SITBs over a 1-year follow-up. The results showed that greater peer conflict combined with higher resting heart rate predicted significant increases in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) among adolescents. Social conflict did not interact with cardiac arousal to predict future suicidal ideation (SI). These findings highlight the importance of peer-related interpersonal stress and physiological vulnerabilities in understanding risk for self-injury in adolescents.