Non-suicidal self injury (NSSI) is a transdiagnostic maladaptive behavior that is highly prevalent in adolescence. A greater understanding of the mechanisms leading to NSSI is needed to guide the development of prevention efforts. The current study examined the relationship between maternal socialization of emotions and NSSI behaviors in their children. Female adolescents (N = 90, 12–17 years old) who demonstrated a range of NSSI lifetime episodes from none to very frequent were included in this sample. Maternal responses to their children’s displays of sadness, anger, and happiness were assessed. Principal components analysis was used to categorize items into supportive and unsupportive maternal emotion socialization responses for the three emotions. Adolescents whose mothers reported less supportive maternal responses to child’s expressions of sadness and anger had more lifetime NSSI episodes. Many of these patterns remained when follow-up analyses considered an extreme group approach (e.g., high counts of NSSI versus no NSSI), when analyses focused on specific diagnostic subgroups (e.g., depression and anxiety), and to some extent (socialization of anger) when current NSSI was considered. While the cross-sectional study design prevents causal conclusions, transactional theories raise the possibility that mothers’ emotion socialization may impact offspring NSSI and offspring engagement in NSSI may result in mothers altering their socialization practices to accommodate their child’s unique needs. Future research should employ longitudinal methodology to examine the time course, consider the role of emotion regulation as an explanatory mechanism, and consider intervention methods that may teach effective emotion socialization for parents.

非自杀性自伤 (NSSI) 是一种跨诊断的适应不良行为，在青春期非常普遍。需要对导致 NSSI 的机制有更深入的了解，以指导预防工作的发展。目前的研究检查了母亲的情绪社会化与孩子的 NSSI 行为之间的关系。该样本包括表现出从无到非常频繁的一系列 NSSI 终生发作的女性青少年（N = 90, 12-17 岁）。评估了母亲对孩子表现出的悲伤、愤怒和快乐的反应。主成分分析用于将项目分类为三种情绪的支持性和非支持性母体情感社会化反应。母亲报告母亲对孩子的悲伤和愤怒表达的支持性反应较少的青少年一生中发生 NSSI 的次数更多。当后续分析考虑极端群体方法时（例如，NSSI 的高计数与无 NSSI），当分析侧重于特定的诊断亚组（例如，抑郁和焦虑），以及在某种程度上（愤怒的社会化）时，这些模式中的许多模式仍然存在) 当考虑当前的 NSSI 时。虽然横断面研究设计阻止了因果结论，但交易理论提出了母亲的情感社会化可能会影响后代 NSSI 的可能性，而后代参与 NSSI 可能会导致母亲改变其社会化实践以适应孩子的独特需求。未来的研究应该采用纵向方法来检查时间进程，