Lifetime Prevalence of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in Adolescents: Reliability of a Dichotomous Survey Item.

Authors

Erik Aspeqvist, Hedvig Andersson, Örjan Dahlström, Laura Korhonen, Maria Zetterqvist

Published in

International journal of methods in psychiatric research. Volume 35. Issue 4. Pages e70115.

Abstract

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a widespread phenomenon among adolescents. Accurate estimates of prevalence rates when screening for NSSI are essential both in research and clinical settings. However, high variability raises the question of the reliability of self-reported NSSI prevalence.
The reliability of a dichotomous survey item on history of NSSI was investigated longitudinally using data from five time points across 16 months in a community sample (N = 253) of Swedish adolescents (age M = 14.21 years, SD = 0.56, 58.5% female).
About one in five participants (18.97%) changed their answer compared to their initial response. Of those who answered negatively on lifetime prevalence of NSSI at baseline, 8.95% later acknowledged NSSI, while 57.69% of those initially acknowledging NSSI later answered negatively. Fleiss' kappa across all five measurements indicated moderate agreement. Cohen's kappa between baseline and 12 months indicated moderate agreement.
In this adolescent sample, the reliability of a single-item question on NSSI history was moderate. More than half of those who initially acknowledged a history of NSSI answered negatively at a later time point. Interpretation of self-reported lifetime prevalence rates of NSSI in adolescents using dichotomous survey items needs to be made cautiously.

PMID:
42904483
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 23 Oct 2026.

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