The aim of this study was to evaluate a questionnaire for the assessment of immediate functions of self-injurious behavior (SIB). SIB is defined as deliberate injuries of the skin such as burning, cutting or beating. Suicidal attempts as well as self-injuries for aesthetic reasons were excluded. Immediate functions were collected from the literature as well as from statements of SIB sufferers. Finally, 154 questions with the response options ‘right’, ‘wrong’ and ‘unknown’ – for phenomena people did not know – were given to 120 persons with SIB aged 13–54 years. They were recruited from SIB-related homepages as well as from psychologists and psychiatrists in hospitals in Austria and Germany. Twelve factors were extracted via factor analysis (varimax rotation): ‘self-punishment’, ‘coping with emotions’, ‘extreme rage’, ‘vitality’, ‘dissociation’, ‘changed perception’, ‘control over body’, ‘uniqueness’, ‘interaction’, ‘addiction’, ‘coping with sexuality’ and ‘expression of sexuality’. All items of each factor were analyzed and unsatisfactory ones excluded to devise a questionnaire as short as possible but with high expressiveness and good reliability. The remaining 107 items have a reliability of r = 0.9118 (Cronbach’s alpha). Evaluation of this questionnaire is in progress.