Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T22:36:15.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Non-Suicidal Self Injury, Psychopathology and Attachment: A Study with University Students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2014

Cátia Braga  and
Sónia Gonçalves
Cátia Braga*
Affiliation:
Universidade do Minho (Portugal)
Sónia Gonçalves
Affiliation:
Universidade do Minho (Portugal)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Cátia Braga. Escola de Psicologia. Universidade do Minho. Campus de Gualtar. Braga (Portugal). Phone: 00351–916776136. E-mail: id4308@alunos.uminho.pt
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Conducted with a community sample, this study first tested the hypothesis that the constant association of Non-Suicidal Self Injury (NSSI) with various psychopathological states may be overrepresented because many of the studies reporting these associations used clinical samples. Secondly, the study aimed to test the emotional regulation model of NSSI by exploring the functions, the affective antecedents and consequences of NSSI episodes and to understand this emotion regulation role of NSSI in the light of Attachment Theory by differentiating self-injurers and non-self-injurers on relevant romantic attachment dimensions. A third purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that individuals currently performing NSSI could be differentiated on these dimensions from those who had ceased engaging in NSSI. Pursuing these purposes, 518 university students (171 males and 347 females), aged 17 to 62 years old completed the Self-Injury Questionnaire – Treatment Related (Claes & Vandereycken, 2007), the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1982) and the Adult Attachment Scale (Collins & Read, 1990). Individuals with NSSI scored significantly higher on all BSI subscales (all p < .001). Results also revealed the existence of significant differences between participants with and without NSSI on Anxiety (Z = –2.92, p < .01) and Comfort with Proximity (Z = –3.18, p < .01), and significant differences between past self-injurers and current self-injurers on Trust in Others (Z = –2.40, p < .05). These results are discussed by linking NSSI and Attachment Theory literatures.

Keywords

non-suicidal self injuryattachmentpsychopathologyuniversity students
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 17 , 2014 , E66
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bowlby, J. (1991). An ethological approach to personality development. American Psychologist, 46, 331–341. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0003-066X.46.4.333 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aventura Social (2011). Health behavior in school-aged children: Dados nacionais 2010. Problemas emergentes e contextos sociais [Health behavior in school-aged children: National data 2010. Emergent problems and social contexts]. Retrieved from Aventura Social website: http://aventurasocial.com/arquivo/1302897373_2b-HBSC%20Adolescentes%202010-11.pdf Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1951). Maternal care and mental health [WHO Monograph series] . Geneve, Switzerland: WHO.Google ScholarPubMed
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Attachment. London, UK: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Brennan, K. A., & Shaver, P. R. (1995). Dimensions of adult attachment, affect regulation, and romantic functioning. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 263–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167295213008 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briere, J., & Gil, E. (1998). Self-mutilation in clinical and general population samples: Prevalence, correlates, and functions. American Journal of Psychiatry, 68, 609–620. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0080369 Google ScholarPubMed
Canavarro, M. C. (1999). Inventário de sintomas psicopatológicos: Uma revisão crítica dos estudos realizados em Portugal. [Brief symptoms index: A critical review of Portuguese studies]. In Almeida, L., Simões, M., Machado, C., & Gonçalves, M. (Eds.). Avaliação psicológica. Instrumentos validados para a população Portuguesa, [Psychological evaluation. Validated measures to the Portuguese population] (Vol. III.) Coimbra, Portugal: Quarteto Editora.Google Scholar
Canavarro, M., Dias, P., & Lima, V. (2006). A avaliação da vinculação do adulto: Uma revisão crítica a propósito da Aplicação da Adult Attachment Scale-R (AAS-R) na população Portuguesa. [The evaluation of the adult attachment: A critical review of the Adult Attachment Scale-R (AAS-R) on the Portuguese population]. Psicologia, 20, 155–186.Google Scholar
Cassidy, J., & Kobak, R. R. (1988). Avoidance and its relationship with other defensive processes. In Belsky, J. & Nezworsky, T. (Eds.), Clinical implications of attachment (pp. 300–323). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Claes, L., & Vandereycken, W. (2007). The self-injury Questionnaire-Treatment Related (SIQ-TR): Constructions, reliability and validity in a sample of eating disorder patients. In Goldfarb, P. M. (Ed.), Psychological tests and testing research trends. New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers.Google Scholar
Collins, N. L., & Read, S. J. (1990). Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 644–663. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.58.4.644 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Derogatis, L. R. (1982). BSI: Brief Symptom Inventory. Minneapolis, MN: National Computers System.Google Scholar
Duque, A., & Neves, P. (2004). Auto-mutilação em meio prisional: Avaliação das perturbações de personalidade.[Self-mutilation in prisoncontext: Assessment of personality disorders]. Psicologia, Saúde e Doenças, 5, 215–227.Google Scholar
Favazza, A. R. (1996). Bodies under siege: Self-mutilation and body modification in culture and psychiatry. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Favazza, A. R., Rosear, L., & Conterio, K. (1989). Self-mutilation and eating disorders. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behaviors, 19, 113–127.Google ScholarPubMed
Gonçalves, S. (2008). Escala de avaliação de ferimentos auto-infligidos [The self-injury questionnaire-treatment related (SIQ-TR)]. Centro de Investigação em Psicologia. Braga: Universidade do Minho.Google Scholar
Gonçalves, S., Martins, C., Rosendo, A. P., Machado, B. C., & Silva, E. (2012). Self-injurious behavior in Portuguese adolescents. Psicothema, 24, 536–541.Google Scholar
Gormley, B., & McNiel, D. E. (2010). Adult attachment orientations, depressive symptoms, anger, and self-directed aggression by psychiatric patients. Cognitive Therapy Research, 34, 272–281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10608-009-9267-5 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gratz, K. L. (2001). Measurement of deliberate self-harm: Preliminary data on the deliberate self-harm inventory. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 23, 253–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gratz, K. L., Conrad, S. D., & Roemer, L. (2002). Risk factors for deliberate self-harm among college students. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 72, 128–140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0002-9432.72.1.128 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hallab, L., Covic, T. (2010). Deliberate self-harm: The interplay between attachment and stress. Behavior Change, 27, 93–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1375/bech.27.2.93 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haw, C., Hawton, K., Houston, K., & Townsend, E. (2001). Psychiatric and personality disorders in deliberate self-harm patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 178, 48−54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjp.178.1.48 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511–524. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.52.3.511 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herpertz, S. (1995). Self-injurious behavior: Psychopathological and nosological characteristics in subtypes of self-injurers. Ata Psychiatrico Scandinavica, 91, 57–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1995.tb09743.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herpertz, S., Sass, H., & Favazza, A. (1997). Impulsivity in self-mutilative behavior: Psychometric and biological findings. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 31, 451–465. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3956(97)00004-6 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobson, C. M., & Gould, M. (2007). The epidemiology and phenomenology of non-suicidal self-injurious behavior among adolescents: A critical review of the literature. Archives of Suicide Reseacrh, 11, 129–147. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13811110701247602 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kimball, J. S., & Diddams, M. (2007). Affect regulation as a mediator of attachment and deliberate self-harm. Journal of College Counseling, 10, 44–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2007.tb00005.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klonsky, E. D. (2007). The functions of deliberate self-injury: A review of the evidence. Clinical Psychology Review, 27, 226–239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2006.08.002 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Langbehn, D. R., & Pfohl, N. B. (1993). Clinical correlates of self-mutilation among psychiatric inpatients. Annuals of Clinical Psychiatry, 5, 45–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/10401239309148923 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levesque, C., Lafontaine, M., Bureau, J. F., Cloutier, P., & Dandurand, C. (2010). The influence of romantic attachment and intimate partner violence on non-suicidal self injury in young adults. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39, 474–483. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-009-9471-3 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Messer, J. M., & Fremouw, W. J. (2008). A critical review of explanatory models for self-mutilating adolescents. Psychology Review, 28, 162–178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2007.04.006 Google Scholar
Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. (2008). Adult attachment and affect regulation. In Cassidy, J. & Shaver, P. R. (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research and clinical applications (pp. 503–531). New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Nock, M. K., & Prinstein, M. J. (2004). A functional approach to the assessment of self-mutilative behavior. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72, 885–890. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.72.5.885 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pietromonaco, P. R., & Barret, L., , F. (2000). The internal working models concept: What do we really know about self and others. Review of General Psychology, 2, 155–173. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//1089-2680.4.2.155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, S., & Heath, N. L. (2002). A study of the frequency of self-mutilation in a community sample of adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 31, 67–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, B., Gameroff, M. J., Michalsen, V., & Mann, J. J. (2001). Are suicide attempters who self-mutilate a unique population? American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 427–432. http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.158.3.427 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zlotnick, C., Mattia, J. I., & Zimmerman, M. (1999). Clinical correlates of self-mutilation in a sample of general psychiatric patients. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 187, 296–301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00005053-199905000-00005 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zweig, F. H., Paris, J., & Guzder, J. (1994). Psychological risk factors for dissociation and self-mutilation in female patients with borderline personality disorders. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 39, 259–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar