The effectiveness of mindfulness-based intervention for psychological distress and emotion regulation in college students with non-suicidal self-injury.

A short-term mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) reduced psychological distress and increased mindfulness among college students who engage in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Compared to healthy controls, the NSSI group initially showed higher distress and lower mindfulness. After the intervention, the NSSI MBI group had significantly greater mindfulness and lower distress than both an NSSI control group and healthy controls. During an emotion regulation task, the NSSI MBI group reported reduced negative emotion intensity regardless of the strategy used. Gains in mindfulness, stress, and emotion regulation were maintained at follow-up. The findings suggest MBI may help individuals with NSSI by improving emotion regulation.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This study explored the effectiveness of a short-term mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on psychological distress, mindfulness levels, emotion regulation, and impulsivity among college students with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Participants completed four questionnaires, including the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the Brief Barratt Impulsivity Scale, and two behavioral tasks, including an emotion regulation task and a stop signal task (SST), at three time points. Compared with the healthy group, the NSSI group had a significantly greater level of psychological distress and a lower level of mindfulness. Compared with the NSSI control group and the healthy group, the NSSI MBI group had significantly increased mindfulness levels and decreased psychological distress after the intervention. In the NSSI MBI group, regardless of which emotion regulation strategy was adopted when viewing negative pictures, the intensity of negative emotions during the emotion regulation task was significantly reduced. Moreover, in the NSSI MBI group, the effectiveness of the MBI on the mindfulness level, stress level, and emotion regulation process was maintained at the follow-up. The present study provided empirical support that short-term MBI has the potential to help individuals with NSSI by enhancing their emotion regulation.