TITLE:
Latent Profiles of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and the Mediating Role of Rumination among University Students
AUTHORS:
Yan Xiong, Guangxin Wang
KEYWORDS:
Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, Latent Profile Analysis, Rumination, Emotion Dysregulation, University Students
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.4,
April
16,
2026
ABSTRACT: This study investigated heterogeneous subtypes of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among college students and examined the psychosocial predictors of high-risk profiles to guide precision interventions. A sample of 303 university students with a history of NSSI completed an online survey. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) identified three distinct subtypes: Low Symptom-Occasional (LSO, 37.3%), Moderate Risk-Function Reliant (MR-FR, 51.8%), and High Frequency-Distress Driven (HF-DD, 10.9%). Multinomial logistic regression revealed that poor family functioning, alongside elevated emotion dysregulation and rumination, significantly predicted membership in the higher-risk profiles (MR-FR and HF-DD). Notably, higher household income uniquely differentiated the most severe HF-DD group from the MR-FR group. Furthermore, mediation analysis demonstrated that rumination acted as a significant partial statistical mediator linking emotion dysregulation to higher-risk NSSI profile membership (standardized indirect effect = 0.317). These findings highlight substantial qualitative differences within the NSSI population. Rumination emerged as a central cognitive mechanism connecting emotional difficulties to entrenched self-injury, underscoring its critical importance as a target for clinical interventions.