Special Section to be published on
Addressing Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI)
Guest Editors: Penelope Hasking and Nancy Heath
Deadline: May 20, 2016
This special section aims to bring awareness and education on the nature and correlates associated with NSSI.
Non-suicidal Self-injury (NSSI), the deliberate destruction or alteration of body tissue, performed without suicidal intent and for purposes not culturally sanctioned (e.g., body piercing), is associated with significant psychological morbidity and increased risk of suicidal behavior.
Often including behaviors such as cutting or self-battery, NSSI is typically first engaged in by young people aged 12-14 years of age. Although NSSI can continue into adulthood, around the world up to one in five adolescents engage in NSSI.
Despite adverse psychological and social consequences, young people who self-injure are reluctant to seek professional help in addressing their self-injury. Given their frequent contact with young people, school mental health professionals and other school personnel are in a unique position to identify and refer at-risk youth, facilitate help-seeking, and promote mental health among vulnerable young people.
Further, schools provide an ideal forum for universal prevention and early intervention programs, which can address sensitive issues like NSSI in a large number of youth in a non-stigmatizing way.
This Special Topic Section of School Psychology Quarterly will be devoted to the publication of scientifically rigorous papers which focus on how best to address NSSI among adolescents and young people in educational settings. We are particularly interested in receiving empirical studies on the nature and correlates associated with NSSI, as well as novel school-based prevention, early intervention and treatment approaches.
The deadline for receipt of papers for this special section is May 20, 2016. Please follow the Instructions to Authors information located on the School Psychology Quarterly website at: http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/spq . Manuscripts must be submitted electronically through the Manuscript Submission Web Portal as described on the journal’s website, here: