Research Participants Needed!
The Cornell Research Program on Self-Injurious Behavior (CRPSIB) is Seeking Research Participants
Our team is looking for research participants for a study examining the process of recovery from self-injury, and particularly family roles in that process. If you are interested in participating or have questions about the study, please contact Amanda Purington at ald17@cornell.edu.
At this time, we are focusing our recruitment efforts for this study on family units as much as possible, which means we would like to speak with both self-injurious youth (ages 15-24) and at least one parent/guardian. We are also interested in recruiting those who are often under-represented in this kind of research, such as self-injurious males, and those who are from racial/ethnic minority groups, and/or sexual minority groups. Any help you can provide in reaching members of these groups is much appreciated.
All participants receive a $25 gift card to Amazon.com as a thank-you for their participation.
Please contact Amanda Purington at ald17@cornell.edu for more information!
Welcome!
Welcome to the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injurious Behavior in Adolescents and Young Adults website. This site is intended to summarize our work and to provide links and resources for information of value in understanding, detecting, treating, and preventing self-injurious behavior (SIB) in adolescents and young adults.
Our project is intended to generate new research and insight into self-injury as well as to translate the growing body of knowledge about self-injury into resources and tools useful for those seeking to better understand and treat it.
Watch a short interview with Janis Whitlock, to hear why studying self-injury is so important.
We invite you to learn more about our work. Please feel free to contact us if you would like additional information, information about our education and consulting services, or want to participate in our study activities. The CRPSIB team provides a range of consulting services for youth-serving professionals, school personnel, and medical professionals seeking to understand, intervene, and/or treat self-injury in adolescent and young adult populations. Please contact Janis Whitlock (jlw43@cornell.edu) for additional information.
Would you like to join our listserv? Send an email to crpsib-l-request@cornell.edu The body of the message should simply be "join". Be sure to send your "join" message from the email address where you want to receive CRPSIB updates.
Resources: Factsheets
Our team has developed a variety of factsheets for general use based on current self-injury research. Current topics include:
- Message Board Post
- What is self-injury?
- Therapy: Myths and misconceptions
- Therapy: What to expect
- Recovering from self-injury
- Top misconceptions about self-injury
- General information on coping
- Alternative coping strategies
- Information about self-injury for parents
- Information about self-injury for friends
Resources: Recovery and Therapy Presentations
In addition to the factsheets listed above, the research team has developed a web-based presentation about the recovery process and others thatintroduce several therapies commonly used to treat self-injury:
- Recovering from self-injurious behavior
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
- Mindfulness-Based Therapies
Additional materials, designed for a more academic audience, have also been developed. These include:
- An annotated bibliography of academic literature regarding coping
- A review of academic literature regarding coping
- The open source journal article on basic self-injury facts is written especially for clinical providers and interested others.
For additional resources and helpful links please see the RESOURCES section of our website.
Please also see our interview with filmmaker Wendy Schneider, creator of the film "CUT: Teens and Self Injury."
About the artwork on this website: The artwork and symbolic figures shown on this website are taken from Buddhist and Native American representations of healing and wholeness. The mandalas on the welcome page were developed by a class of young people studying Tibetan Buddism. The artists are anonymous.

