Abstract

This study examined whether beliefs about nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) mediate the association between self-criticism and suicidal ideation among university students and whether self-esteem stability moderates the association between self-criticism and NSSI beliefs. Online survey data were collected from 250 university students residing across all 17 provincial-level administrative regions of South Korea, who completed measures of self-criticism, NSSI beliefs, self-esteem stability, and suicidal ideation. A moderated mediation model was tested with the SPSS PROCESS macro, and conditional indirect effects were examined with bootstrapping. Self-criticism was positively associated with NSSI beliefs and suicidal ideation and negatively associated with self-esteem stability. The positive association between self-criticism and NSSI beliefs was stronger at lower levels of self-esteem stability, and NSSI beliefs remained positively associated with suicidal ideation after self-criticism was controlled. The conditional indirect association between self-criticism and suicidal ideation through NSSI beliefs also weakened as self-esteem stability rose. These results indicate that suicide risk assessment and counseling should attend not only to the degree of self-criticism but also to beliefs about self-injury and to the stability of self-esteem.