2026/07/06 by Rachel Moseley, Ido Shalev, Carrie Allison +8 · 1 voice
Psychology · #Suicide and Self-Harm Studies #Mental Health Research Topics #Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
paper · doi:10.31234/osf.io/2zwm9_v1
openalex publication_date 2026/07/06 · openalex created_date 2026/07/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/21
BackgroundNon-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is relatively common among autistic people. While studies indicate relationships between NSSI and suicidal thoughts and behaviour (STB), it is unclear whether specific NSSI behaviours co-occur in meaningful ways with differential relevance to STB, and if this differs between autistic and non-autistic people.MethodsTo understand the clinical relevance of specific NSSI behaviours to STB and related constructs, we pooled data from 327 autistic and 260 non-autistic participants from two online surveys. We used network analyses to separately visualise and compare the NSSI networks of autistic and non-autistic people, controlling for age differences between groups. Thereafter, using data provided by autistic people across two time-points one year apart, we examined zero-order correlations and used LASSO regression to assess links between NSSI behaviours at the first time-point and STB-related variables at the second.ResultsOur first analyses revealed differences between autistic and non-autistic people in the co-occurrence of NSSI behaviours and their relationships to STB-related constructs. Three NSSI clusters emerged for autistic people and one for non-autistic people. In both groups, some NSSI behaviours were only indirectly linked to STB via relationships to other NSSI behaviours; cutting and ingesting dangerous substances/sharp objects were most strongly related to suicide attempts. Our second analyses, focusing on autistic people, revealed initial correlations between cutting, self-burning, self-hitting and skin-tearing and STB-related outcomes, although these disappeared after controlling for STB at time-point one. Self-biting, breaking bones and fighting to get hurt remained significant predictors of STB-related outcomes. ConclusionWhile requiring replication in better matched samples, our findings corroborate differences in how autistic and non-autistic people engage in NSSI, as well as differential relevance of specific behaviours to STB. Future research must explore direct and indirect pathways between NSSI behaviours and STB, and the functional needs that different behaviours serve.