An article by Paul, Tsypes, Eidlitz, Ernhout, & Whitlock (2015) addresses the significance of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs), examining the frequency of NSSI and the risk of suicidal ideation in a participant population of students between the ages of 18 and 29 years. A web-based survey was used to evaluate students with the collection of 13,396 responses and noted a relationship between NSSI frequency and specific suicide outcomes (Paul et al., 2015).

It is believed that the majority of NSSI actions are directly associated with suicide attempts, along with other factors which include self-hatred, distancing oneself from other people, and lack of follow-through on a suicide attempt (Paul et al., 2015). This information is significant in learning why individuals might engage in actions related to self-harm and how this impacts suicide risk in the designated student population and how this may be applicable to other population groups (Paul et al., 2015).

For this article, the primary research method was an online survey which was conducted at eight universities in the Midwest and Northeast and included an original sample of 36,900 students with a survey completion time of 15-30 minutes (Paul et al., 2015). The final study sample included students between the ages of 18 and 29 and was comprised of 13,396 students, with a mix of responses which represented the populations at the eight universities which were included in the survey (Paul et al., 2015). The results of this survey demonstrate that suicidal risk is directly correlated to NSSI and that understanding the nature of these tendencies will plays a critical role in understanding the key factors which contribute to suicide risk and self-harm in students and in other population groups (Paul et al., 2015).