| Sumario: | Experience sampling research is making important contributions to our knowledge base on self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs). However, there are unresolved questions about how people with SITB histories respond to participating in these studies, which can be demanding, relative to other research designs. The present study explored how people engage with experience sampling methods (ESMs) that target SITB outcomes. Combining data from two studies of community-dwelling adults with a history of significant SITBs, we performed a mixed methods investigation of people's reactions to ESMs in a sample of 109 people (57.8% female; 26.6% trans/gender-expansive; 33.0% heterosexual; 53.2% White; 16.5% Latinx) who described (via closed- and open-ended questions) their perceptions of the research process. Our quantitative analyses replicated prior work in finding that most people rated the study experience as satisfactory, feasible, and not unduly stressful. Also, there was little evidence of iatrogenic effects (i.e., intensifying SITBs across the repeated assessments). Our qualitative investigation, based in reflexive thematic analysis, yielded themes related to self-awareness, confronting previously guarded internal experiences, emotion regulation, biographical or "self"-related change, and inconvenience. Guided by these results, we discuss potential benefits and harms of ESM study participation that we believe should be considered by researchers to promote ethical research practices and a more valid evidence base in the SITB literature. Public Significance Statement: We asked people with histories of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors to tell us what it is like to participate in research that involves completing multiple surveys per day on self-injury outcomes. Our analysis of their qualitative and quantitative responses suggests that study participation is generally enlightening and is only occasionally perceived as unduly inconvenient or emotionally triggering.
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