{"id":{"repo_id":"cambridge","oai_identifier":"oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/349166"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cambridge/oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/349166","repository":{"repo_id":"cambridge","name":"Cambridge University","base_url":"https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Revisiting Gender: A Quantitative Study of Self-Injury in Young Adults","abstract":"Non-suicidal self-injury is a prevalent and pressing public health concern, especially among young people. In recent decades, psychiatric research has greatly developed our understanding of the aetiology of self-injury and effective avenues for clinical intervention. However, the field has scarcely acknowledged the gender bias which pervades the self-injury literature – research has focused primarily on teenage girls and young women, at the exclusion of men and gender non-conforming people. In this dissertation, I revisit the topic of gender in self-injury research and use cross-sectional statistical analyses to address unanswered questions about gender similarities and differences in the prevalence, clinical severity, and functions of self-injury. I begin by introducing the study of self-injury and current understandings of how psychological distress, emotion dysregulation, and impulsivity contribute to the behaviour. Next, I discuss the gendered origins of our modern knowledge and present some of the gender- based assumptions that pervade the literature. This lays the foundation for subsequent chapters to investigate the aetiology of gender disparities in self-injury prevalence and characterise gender similarities and differences in self-injury presentation. I then present four quantitative studies across two community samples of young adults. The first study uses mediation and moderation analyses to test how self-reported psychological distress, emotion dysregulation, and impulsivity contribute to higher rates of self-injury among women than men. In the second study, these analyses are replicated in a second sample and extended to include gender non-conforming young adults, who report especially high rates of self-injury. The third study investigates whether gender differences in prevalence mirror differences in clinical severity by comparing groups on the reported addictive features of their self-injury, strength and intensity of urges, latency, and age of onset. The fourth study compares gender groups on their endorsement of 24 intrapersonal and social self-injury functions, and tests hypothesized group similarities and differences based on findings from previous chapters. Across the four studies, results are consistent with a priori hypotheses and suggest gender disparities in levels of psychological distress and emotion dysregulation contribute to group differences. Gender non-conforming participants consistently emerge as the highest risk group, highlighting the need for self-injury research to address its neglect of this population. Overall, this dissertation provides novel insights into the aetiology of gender differences in self-injury and reveals key directions for future gender-informed research.","abstract_html":"Non-suicidal self-injury is a prevalent and pressing public health concern, especially among young people. In recent decades, psychiatric research has greatly developed our understanding of the aetiology of self-injury and effective avenues for clinical intervention. However, the field has scarcely acknowledged the gender bias which pervades the self-injury literature – research has focused primarily on teenage girls and young women, at the exclusion of men and gender non-conforming people. In this dissertation, I revisit the topic of gender in self-injury research and use cross-sectional statistical analyses to address unanswered questions about gender similarities and differences in the prevalence, clinical severity, and functions of self-injury. I begin by introducing the study of self-injury and current understandings of how psychological distress, emotion dysregulation, and impulsivity contribute to the behaviour. Next, I discuss the gendered origins of our modern knowledge and present some of the gender- based assumptions that pervade the literature. This lays the foundation for subsequent chapters to investigate the aetiology of gender disparities in self-injury prevalence and characterise gender similarities and differences in self-injury presentation. I then present four quantitative studies across two community samples of young adults. The first study uses mediation and moderation analyses to test how self-reported psychological distress, emotion dysregulation, and impulsivity contribute to higher rates of self-injury among women than men. In the second study, these analyses are replicated in a second sample and extended to include gender non-conforming young adults, who report especially high rates of self-injury. The third study investigates whether gender differences in prevalence mirror differences in clinical severity by comparing groups on the reported addictive features of their self-injury, strength and intensity of urges, latency, and age of onset. The fourth study compares gender groups on their endorsement of 24 intrapersonal and social self-injury functions, and tests hypothesized group similarities and differences based on findings from previous chapters. Across the four studies, results are consistent with a priori hypotheses and suggest gender disparities in levels of psychological distress and emotion dysregulation contribute to group differences. Gender non-conforming participants consistently emerge as the highest risk group, highlighting the need for self-injury research to address its neglect of this population. Overall, this dissertation provides novel insights into the aetiology of gender differences in self-injury and reveals key directions for future gender-informed research.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Lutz, Nina"],"institution":"University of Cambridge","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Ford, Tamsin"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2022,"date_issued":"2022-12-01","date_published":"2022-12-01","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:25Z","subjects":["gender","LGBT","self-harm","self-injury"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/4a6ba32e-f790-4369-846d-7434b696f92c/download","https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:creator.authoridentifier","label":"Author Identifier","values":["0000000340960236"],"render_values":[{"text":"0000-0003-4096-0236","href":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4096-0236","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.96444","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.doi"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Ford, Tamsin"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Lutz, Nina"]},{"key":"dc:creator.authoridentifier","label":"Author Identifier","values":["0000000340960236"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2022-12-01"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Cambridge"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby.uri","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby URI","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/349166"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["gender","LGBT","self-harm","self-injury"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/4a6ba32e-f790-4369-846d-7434b696f92c/download","https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"]},{"key":"dc:rights.embargodate","label":"Dc Rights Embargodate","values":["2026-04-27"]},{"key":"dc:rights.embargotype","label":"Dc Rights Embargotype","values":["embargo"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.96444"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/a5b53503-479d-45b1-bef5-553b6c28bd1e/download"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Non-suicidal self-injury is a prevalent and pressing public health concern, especially among young people. 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