Grant: Doctoral: Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

Suicide and attempted suicide are shockingly prevalent. Suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in Canada, and twenty times as many people attempt suicide as die by suicide each year. Non-suicidal self-injury, such as cutting or burning, is also highly prevalent, with an estimated 15% of Canadian adolescents having engaged in these behaviours. Only in the last few years, however, have researchers begun to understand the relationship between non-suicidal and suicidal self-injury. Engaging in non-suicidal self-injury is associated with a much greater likelihood of attempting suicide; this relationship is stronger, in fact, than the relationship between attempted suicide and depression, hopelessness, and previous suicide attempts. Despite this strong relationship, not all self-injurers will make suicide attempts, and little research has investigated what differs between those who do and do not attempt suicide. This proposed research will clarify how aspects of non-suicidal self-injury, such as the frequency of self-injury, the methods used, or the purpose or function of self-injury, are related to suicide attempts among adolescents and young adults. Participants in this research will provide detailed information about their history of non-suicidal self-injury and attempted suicide to determine which aspects of non-suicidal self-injury are most related to suicide risk. Further, some participants will be followed over time to investigate how earlier non-suicidal self-injury is related to later suicide attempts. This research will clarify the relationship between non-suicidal self-injury and suicide, thereby improving not only the ability of researchers to understand the relationship between suicidal and non-suicidal self-injury, but also the ability of clinicians to assess risk of attempted suicide among the already high-risk population of self-injurers.