Kramer, Ilana (4/12) Risk factors for self-injury: The role of childhood abuse, insecure attachment style, and poor affect regulation (Sara Haden, Ph.D.; Kevin Meehan, Ph.D.; Joan Duncan, Ph.D.)
Self-injury is defined in the clinical literature as deliberate damage to the body tissue. This study investigated childhood abuse, insecure (both anxious and avoidant) quality of attachment, and poor affect regulation (both over- and underarousal) as risk factors related to self-injury. A sample of 209 male and female university students was presented with implicit and explicit measures for assessing self-injury. Of the total participants, over 35% (79 out of 209) endorsed self-injurious thoughts and/or behaviors at least once in their life. As expected, results indicated that participants who scored higher on childhood abuse were more likely to endorse self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. Additionally, childhood abuse was found to mediate the relationship between insecure attachment and self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. Contrary to expectation, self-injuring participants high on avoidant attachment were found to experience both forms of poor affect regulation (underarousal and overarousal). Also, self-injuring participants high on anxious attachment scored lower (rather than higher) overarousal. Another unexpected finding was that participants high on overarousal were less likely to endorse self-injurious behaviors and implicit self-injurious identity than participants low on overarousal. The negative relationship between overarousal and self-injurious identity was strongest among participants high in childhood abuse, whereas the positive relationship between childhood abuse and implicit self-injury identity was strongest among participants who scored low on overarousal. Underarousal was associated with greater endorsement of self-injury behaviors, but not self-injury thoughts or implicit self-injurious identity. Implications for these findings are discussed.
