Sarah Victor

Texas Tech University | TTU · Department of Psychological Sciences

Objective To investigate near‐term risk for self‐injurious urges, we evaluated how within‐person changes in internalizing and externalizing negative affect, as well as interpersonal rejection and criticism, impact subsequent nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) and suicide urges in daily life. Method Young adult women (N = 62) from an ongoing community...

While nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is common in both men and women, research exploring the intersection of NSSI and gender has been limited by the use of small samples of males drawn primarily from non-clinical populations. To address these limitations, we analyzed data from a large sample of patients enrolled in an NSSI partial hospitalization p...

The field of affective clinical science has expanded dramatically over the past several decades (Rottenberg and Gross 2003; Tracy et al. 2014). An important part of this research is understanding emotion regulation and dysregulation, in particular, how individuals differ in their ability to identify, accept, and manage their emotional experiences....

1 Objective Research investigating the social context of adolescent nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) has been limited. We therefore examined social characteristics of NSSI, such as knowledge of friends’ NSSI and the role friends play in continuing NSSI, and their relationships to other known NSSI correlates, such as suicidality. 2 Method We assessed...

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is robustly associated with suicidal ideation (SI; e.g., Brausch & Gutierrez, 2009; Muehlenkamp et al., 2022). Intrapersonal (e.g., affect regulation, sensation-seeking), more than interpersonal (e.g., help-seeking, self-isolation) functions of NSSI, have been shown to predict SI in self-injuring youth (Victor et al.,...

References: Kuppens, P., Sheeber, L. B., Yap, M. B. H., Whittle, S., Simmons, J. G., & Allen, N. B. (2012). Emotional inertia prospectively predicts the onset of depressive disorder in adolescence. Emotion, 12, 283–289. Armey, M. F., Brick, L., Schatten, H. T., Nugent, N. R., & Miller, I. W. (2018). Ecologically assessed affect and suicidal ideat...

Minoritized sexual orientation is an established correlate for suicide ideation (SI) and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI); however, research on the prospective associations between sexual orientation and SI and NSSI is limited. The current study builds on existing literature by examining sexual orientation as a prospective distal risk factor for SI a...

The science and practice of psychology are improved by fostering an inclusive environment for professionals with lived experience of mental illness, sometimes referred to as "prosumers". Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is an increasingly prevalent behavior that occurs across the spectra of mental disorders, and that is associated with greater stigm...

Affective dynamics, assessed using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), provide a nuanced understanding of within-person fluctuations of negative affect (NA) and positive affect (PA) in daily life. NA and PA dynamics have been associated with psychopathology and response to psychological treatments. NA and PA dynamics have been rarely studied con...

Leading etiological theories implicate the family environment in shaping borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although a substantive literature explores familial aggregation of this condition, most studies focus on parent influence(s) on offspring symptoms without examining youth symptom influence on the parent. The current study investigated rec...

Little is known about pathogenic affective processes that cut across diverse mental disorders. We examine how dynamic features of positive and negative affect differ or converge across internalizing and externalizing disorders in a diagnostically diverse urban sample using bivariate dynamic structural equation modeling. One-hundred fifty-six young...

Dissociation is associated with risk for suicide in adults, but this link is not well studied in adolescents, in spite of their marked suicide risk. This study assessed adolescents’ dissociative experiences in daily life and evaluated the association between dissociative experiences and suicide risk, including the independence of this relationship...

Emotion research would benefit from a self-report measure that assesses both discrete emotions and broad dimensions, takes into account the time-course of emotional experience, and distinguishes emotional reactivity and regulation. The present study describes the development and psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Emotion Questionnaire...

Background Adolescence is characterized by developmental changes in social relationships, which may contribute to, or protect against, psychopathology and risky behaviors. Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is one type of risky behavior that typically begins during adolescence and is associated with problems in relationships with family members and pe...

Suicide capability is one of few risk factors associated with suicide attempts among ideators. In the decade since the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide introduced the concept of acquired capability (i.e., the ability to face the fear and pain associated with death), understanding of the capability to attempt suicide has grown. Acquired...

Socioeconomic status and SITB: Exploring an understudied relationship

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is highly prevalent and associated with tissue damage, emotional distress, and psychiatric disorders. While often discussed in the context of Borderline Personality Disorder and suicide, research demonstrates that NSSI is distinct from these constructs and should be viewed as an independent diagnostic category. Recen...

In this study, we sought to clarify if and how the functions of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) relate to duration of NSSI or change over time. To accomplish this aim, we analyzed data obtained from routine clinical evaluations completed within a specialized acute-care treatment program for NSSI. Specifically, we examined how functions of NSSI vary...

Objectives: Some researchers suggest that borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by elevated negative emotion; others argue that BPD involves both reduced positive and increased negative emotion. This study characterizes the emotional experiences of individuals with BPD symptoms in a combined university and community sample. Metho...

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal ideation (SI) are both distressing and quite common, particularly in youth. Given the relationship between these two phenomena, it is crucial to learn how we can use information about NSSI to understand who is at greatest risk of suicidal thoughts. In this study, we investigated how characteristics of non...

Nonsuicidal self-injury is the deliberate self-inflicted destruction of one's own body tissue without suicidal intent and for purposes not socially sanctioned. Common examples include self-cutting, burning, and hitting. Self-injury is especially common among adolescents and is associated with varied types of psychopathology, including mood and anxi...

For decades, knowledge about nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) was limited to only a small handful of empirical studies. However, the last 10 to 15 years have witnessed an explosion of research and significant advances in knowledge about NSSI. We now understand much about the classification, prevalence, correlates, forms, and functions of NSSI, and ha...

While major theories of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) emphasize the behavior's role in emotion regulation, little is known about the daily emotional experiences of self-injurers. This study investigated the specific emotions that are characteristic of those who engage in NSSI. University students (n = 84) with either no history or a recent histor...

There is debate among researchers regarding the most appropriate conceptual model of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Some argue that NSSI is best viewed within an addictions framework. Because craving of substances is a key concept in the addictions literature, we sought to compare the nature of craving in NSSI and substance use. Measures of NSSI,...

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic psychiatric illness that impairs quality of life (QoL) in numerous life domains even when mood symptoms are not present and is characterized by elevated impulsivity. Many of the comorbid conditions that are associated with diminished QoL in BD also involve impulsivity. The objective of this project was to investig...