Why alternative teenagers self-harm: exploring the link between non-suicidal self-injury, attempted suicide and adolescent identity

Background: The term ‘self-harm’ encompasses both attempted suicide and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Specific adolescent subpopulations such as ethnic or sexual minorities, and more controversially, those who identify as ‘Alternative’ (Goth, Emo) have been proposed as being more likely to self-harm, while other groups such as ‘Jocks’ are linked with protective coping behaviours (for example exercise). NSSI has autonomic (it reduces negative emotions) and social (it communicates distress or facilitates group ‘bonding’) functions. This study explores the links between such aspects of self-harm, primarily NSSI, and youth subculture.<p></p> Methods: An anonymous survey was carried out of 452 15 year old German school students. Measures included: identification with different youth cultures, i.e. Alternative (Goth, Emo, Punk), Nerd (academic) or Jock (athletic); social background, e.g. socioeconomic status; and experience of victimisation. Self-harm (suicide and NSSI) was assessed using Self-harm Behavior Questionnaire and the Functional Assessment of Self-Mutilation (FASM).<p></p> Results: An “Alternative” identity was directly (r ≈ 0.3) and a “Jock” identity inversely (r ≈ -0.1) correlated with self-harm. “Alternative” teenagers self-injured more frequently (NSSI 45.5% vs. 18.8%), repeatedly self-injured, and were 4–8 times more likely to attempt suicide (even after adjusting for social background) than their non-Alternative peers. They were also more likely to self-injure for autonomic, communicative and social reasons than other adolescents.<p></p> Conclusions: About half of ‘Alternative’ adolescents’ self-injure, primarily to regulate emotions and communicate distress. However, a minority self-injure to reinforce their group identity, i.e. ‘To feel more a part of a group’

“Your argumentation is good”, says the AI vs humans – The role of feedback providers and personalised language for feedback effectiveness

The article processing charge was funded by the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.Argumentative writing is an important skill for (future) teachers, and this skill can be promoted with feedback. For such feedback to be effective, certain social and non-cognitive aspects must be considered. Building on this, our study investigated the influence of different feedback providers and language styles on learners’ motivation, emotions, self-efficacy, and perceptions about the provider and the feedback. A total of N = 98 German student teachers participated in the 3 (feedback provider: artificial intelligence (AI) vs educator vs peer) × 2 (feedback language: personalised vs neutral) experimental between-subjects design. Results showed that student teachers ascribed an AI, compared to educators and peers, with more trustworthiness, particularly regarding its expertise. Against our expectations, we did not find further significant effects, but we found several tendencies that point towards the importance of social and non-cognitive aspects in feedback processes and indicate the need for further research. Conclusively, these aspects should be considered when investigating feedback processes in online learning environments.Peer Reviewe

Not Just Asking Questions: Effects of Implicit and Explicit Conspiracy Information About Vaccines and Genetic Modification

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis (Routledge) via the DOI in this record.While conspiracy ideation has attracted overdue attention from social scientists in recent years, little work focuses on how different pro-conspiracy messages affect the take-up of conspiracy beliefs. In this study, we compare the effect of explicit and implicit conspiracy cues on the adoption of conspiracy beliefs. We also examine whether corrective information can undo conspiracy cues, and whether there are differences in the effectiveness of corrective information based on whether a respondent received an explicit or implicit conspiracy cue. We examine these questions using a real-world but low-salience conspiracy theory concerning Zika, GM mosquitoes, and vaccines. Using a preregistered experiment (N = 1018: https://osf.io/hj2pw/), we find that both explicit and implicit conspiracy cues increase conspiracy beliefs, but in both cases corrections are generally effective. We also find reception of an explicit conspiracy cue and its correction is conditional on feelings toward the media and pharmaceutical companies. Finally, we find that examining open-ended conspiracy belief items reveals similar patterns, but with a few key differences. These findings have implications for how news media cover controversial public health issues going forward.European Research Counci

Non-suicidal self-injury : the associations among emotional, parental, and peer influences

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a complex and dangerous set of behaviours that has been gaining increased research attention in recent years. Although existing research indicates that NSSI is prevalent among both adolescent and young adult clinical and community samples, few studies have empirically examined models of factors involved in the etiology and maintenance of these behaviours, particularly the role of social factors. Further, although existing research supports the use of NSSI for emotion regulation purposes, less research attention has focused on the impact of emotion reactivity. The focus of the current project was to examine the role of emotional, interpersonal, and subcultural factors in NSSI. Utilizing a sample of 397 university students, Study 1 presents a psychometric re-evaluation of the Emotion Reactivity Scale (ERS; Nock et al., 2008), used to inform the most appropriate use of the measure in the subsequent studies. Results supported the reliability and validity of the ERS and suggested that the ERS is best utilized as a unidimensional measure of emotion reactivity. Study 2 examined an intra- and inter-personal model of NSSI among the same sample of 397 university students. Support was obtained for the Experiential Avoidance Model of NSSI (Chapman et al., 2006) as well as for the mediational influence of interpersonal relationships on NSSI via emotion regulation. Preliminary support was also provided for the influence of identification with more deviant subcultures, including Goth and Emo groups. Finally, Study 3 aimed to replicate support for the model among a sample of 178 members of self-injury internet forums. Contrary to hypotheses, little support was demonstrated for the model, and fewer significant associations were demonstrated for the influence of subcultural identification. Examination of the characteristics of the sample suggested that the online forum members represent a unique group in regard to the severity of their NSSI experiences that has been understudied in the existing literature. Alternative hypotheses to account for the observed findings are presented. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed

Detecting an Autobiographical Criminal: Investigating Gender Differences in Staged Suicide Notes

Suicide notes are valuable in assisting equivocal police investigations because they can provide access into the author’s mind. An abundance of research has already linguistically analysed genuine and simulated suicide notes and have identified significant differences between the two. However, this only provides limited assistance in discerning note authenticity. Suicidology research has not yet considered how authors can linguistically construct gender in order to disguise their own, which may underpin some equivocal cases. The present study endeavoured to explore linguistic gender construction in staged suicide notes by cross-referencing suicide, deception and gendered-language corpuses with participants’ self-produced staged suicide notes to determine whether authorship can be detected through language-use and contribute to evaluating suicide note veracity. Participants were student volunteers (n = 4: 2 males, 2 females), recruited from the University of Derby. A qualitative document-interview methodology was used to gain primary data and explore pragmatic meaning by thematically analysing participants’ staged suicide notes and interview transcripts in order to categorise linguistic themes and explore whether pre-existing mental representations can influence language-use. Societal stereotypes regarding suicide and gender were found and linguistic features remained largely consistent with previous research. Findings may improve equivocal suicide investigations

The contributions of transcription skills to paper-based and computer-based text composing in the early years

Digital tools are an integral part of most writing communities across the globe, enhancing the criticality of gaining a comprehensive understanding of both paper and computer-based writing acquisition and development. The relationships between transcription skills and children’s paper-based writing performance are well documented. Less is known about the relationships between transcription skills and children’s computer-based writing performance. In this study, we examined the unique contributions of transcription skills (i.e., handwriting automaticity, keyboarding automaticity and spelling) in predicting Grade 2 students (N = 544) paper-based and computer-based writing performance (i.e., compositional quality and productivity) after controlling for other student-level factors (i.e., gender, word reading, reading comprehension, and attitudes towards writing) and classroom-level factors (i.e., amount of time teaching handwriting, keyboarding, and spelling). Multilevel modelling showed that, compared to handwriting automaticity, spelling skills accounted for a larger percentage of unique variance in predicting paper-based compositional quality; handwriting automaticity accounted for a larger percentage of unique variance in explaining paper-based compositional productivity. Findings further showed that keyboarding automaticity accounted for a larger percentage of unique variance in students’ computer-based compositional quality and productivity when compared to spelling. Gender and word reading skills were also found to be uniquely related to students’ writing performance across modalities. These findings underscore the need for educators to address and nurture the automaticity of inscription and spelling skills to enhance students' compositional quality and productivity, whether in traditional paperbased or computer-based text composing

VISAR: A Human-AI Argumentative Writing Assistant with Visual Programming and Rapid Draft Prototyping

In argumentative writing, writers must brainstorm hierarchical writing goals, ensure the persuasiveness of their arguments, and revise and organize their plans through drafting. Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) have made interactive text generation through a chat interface (e.g., ChatGPT) possible. However, this approach often neglects implicit writing context and user intent, lacks support for user control and autonomy, and provides limited assistance for sensemaking and revising writing plans. To address these challenges, we introduce VISAR, an AI-enabled writing assistant system designed to help writers brainstorm and revise hierarchical goals within their writing context, organize argument structures through synchronized text editing and visual programming, and enhance persuasiveness with argumentation spark recommendations. VISAR allows users to explore, experiment with, and validate their writing plans using automatic draft prototyping. A controlled lab study confirmed the usability and effectiveness of VISAR in facilitating the argumentative writing planning process.Comment: 30 pages, published in UIST'2

The role of cognitive biases in conspiracy beliefs: A literature review

In recent years, several studies have found that conspiracy believers tend to be more susceptible to cognitive biases (e.g., conjunction fallacy, proportionality bias, agency detection bias, etc.). The aim of this work is to review such literature, systematizing these concepts in a unifying framework of conspiracy mentality as a set of biased cognitive processes, which categorizes cognitive biases in two classes: those that contribute to belief formation and those that contribute to belief updating. Drawing on several empirical results, this paper summarizes the role of cognitive biases in conspiratorial thinking, offering some insights for future research and raising questions about the possible weaknesses of this approach

Cognitive Distortions, Impulsivity, and Stressful Life Events in Suicidal Adolescents.

Among adolescents, escalating rates of completed and attempted suicide are reported worldwide (Maris, 1985). In the literature, a variety of risk factors have been associated with suicidality in adolescence. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between cognitive distortions, impulsivity, and stressful life events in suicidal adolescents. A total of 118 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years participated in this investigation. The subjects comprised four groups: inpatient suicide attempters (n = 33); inpatient and outpatient suicide ideators (n = 17); inpatient, nonsuicidal controls (n = 33), and community high school controls(n = 35). Subjects completed self-report measures of cognitive distortions, depression, impulsivity, life events, and daily hassles and a semi-structured interview for suicidal behavior. Multivariate analyses revealed group differences in depression, hopelessness, and cognitive distortions and in life events and daily hassles; in addition, univariate analysis revealed group differences in impulsivity. Suicidal adolescents reported greater depression, hopelessness, and cognitive distortions than psychiatric and community controls. In addition, self-reported depression distinguished ideators and attempters. Suicidal adolescents reported greater negative life events and daily hassles than psychiatric and community controls. Impulsivity also differentiated suicidal adolescents from psychiatric and community controls. Among suicide attempters, medical lethality of suicide attempt was associated with hopelessness, daily hassles, and depression. Cognitive distortions and negative life events contributed to the prediction of suicidal behavior, above and beyond demographic variables, past suicide attempt(s), and depression