The Effect of Emotion Regulation on Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Among Adolescents: The Mediating Roles of Sleep, Exercise, and Social Support

PURPOSE: To explore the relationship between adolescents’ emotion regulation ability and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behavior and the role of sleep, exercise, and social support in this relationship. METHODS: A total of 2573 adolescents were investigated with the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Scale, the Social Support Scale for Children and Adolescents, the Ottawa Self-Injury Questionnaire, and the Self-Made Living Condition Questionnaire, and path analysis was conducted based on the structural equation model (SEM). RESULTS: 1) There was a significant correlation between emotion regulation ability and NSSI behavior; 2) sleep and social support played a mediating role between emotion regulation ability and NSSI behavior; and 3) sleep modulated the direct effect of negative emotion regulation ability on NSSI, while exercise modulated the direct effect of positive emotion regulation ability on NSSI, which indicated that sleep and exercise could effectively alleviate NSSI behavior caused by the lack of emotion regulation in adolescents.