Risk factors for deliberate self-harm among college students.
American Journal of OrthopsychiatryPublished 1 January 2002
Kim L. Gratz, Sheree Dukes Conrad, Lizabeth Roemer
Citations526
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score1.07
SNIP1.01
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
Results indicated that insecure attachment, childhood separation, emotional neglect, sexual abuse, and dissociation were significant predictors of self-harm.
Abstract
This self-report study examined the risk factors for deliberate self-harm among college students. Results indicated that insecure attachment, childhood separation, emotional neglect, sexual abuse, and dissociation were significant predictors of self-harm. Substantial gender differences in the risk factors for self-harm behavior were also revealed. Suggestions for future research are provided.
Keywords
PsychologyMedicine
Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation
12,695 Citations1978Mary D. Salter Ainsworth, Mary C. Blehar +2 more
Journal of Consulting PsychologyA new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology.
8,583 Citations1960Douglas P. Crowne, David Marlowe
It seems clear that the items in the Edwards Social Desirability Scale would, of necessity, have extreme social desirability scale positions or, in other words, be statistically deviant.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental DiseaseDevelopment, Reliability, and Validity of a Dissociation Scale
3,747 Citations1986E. M. Bernstein, Frank W. Putnam
The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) has been developed to offer a means of reliably measuring dissociation in normal and clinical populations and was able to distinguish between subjects with a dissociative disorder (multiple personality) and all other subjects.
The British Journal of PsychiatryThe Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds
2,849 Citations1977John Bowlby
Though attachment theory incorporates much psychoanalytic thinking, many of its principles derive from ethology, cognitive psychology and control theory, and it conforms to the ordinary criteria of a scientific discipline.
The making & breaking of affectional bonds
2,669 Citations1979John Bowlby
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral AssessmentMeasurement of Deliberate Self-Harm: Preliminary Data on the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory
1,119 Citations2001Kim L. Gratz
American Journal of OrthopsychiatrySelf-mutilation in clinical and general population samples: Prevalence, correlates, and functions.
956 Citations1998John Briere, Eliana Gil
Results suggest that self-mutilation is used to decrease dissociation, emotional distress, and posttraumatic symptoms.
American Journal of PsychiatryChildhood origins of self-destructive behavior
861 Citations1991Bessel A. van der Kolk, J. Christopher Perry +1 more
American Journal of PsychiatryDissociative symptoms in relation to childhood physical and sexual abuse
841 Citations1990James A. Chu, Diana L. Dill
Subjects with a history of childhood abuse reported higher levels of dissociative symptoms than those who did not, and patients with histories of abuse had scores at or above the median score of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental DiseaseThe Coming of Age of Self-Mutilation
714 Citations1998Armando R. Favazza
This review suggests that SM can best be understood as a morbid self-help effort providing rapid but temporary relief from feelings of depersonalization, guilt, rejection, and boredom as well as hallucinations, sexual preoccupations, and chaotic thoughts.
Development and PsychopathologyDevelopment and the fragmented self: Longitudinal study of dissociative symptomatologyin a nonclinical sample
648 Citations1997John R. Ogawa, L. Alan Sroufe +3 more
This study investigated whether trauma, sense of self, quality of early mother-child relationship, temperament, and intelligence were related to dissociative symptomatology measured at four times across 19 years.
Clinical Psychology ReviewThe functions of self-mutilation
598 Citations1998Karen L. Suyemoto
This review uses six functional models extracted from the literature to organize a discussion of the multiple functions of self-mutilation, acknowledging the overdetermined nature of the behavior and attempting to understand how self- Mutilation can serve multiple functions simultaneously.
Child DevelopmentCoping with Family Transitions: Winners, Losers, and Survivors
589 Citations1989E. Mavis Hetherington
Child Abuse & NeglectThe developmental consequence of different patterns of maltreatment
498 Citations1983Byron Egeland, L. Alan Sroufe +1 more
From a longitudinal study of 267 high risk families, four different patterns of maltreatment were identified and the children whose mothers were psychologically unavailable showed marked increases in maladaptive patterns of functioning from infancy through preschool.
American Journal of PsychiatrySelf-injurious behavior: a review of the behavior and biology of self- mutilation
430 Citations1991Ronald Winchel, M. Stanley
Although no form of treatment has yet been demonstrated to be of general benefit, the literature suggests that therapeutic trials with dopamine antagonists, serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and opiate antagonists may be of value.
Medical Entomology and ZoologySelf-Mutilation: Theory, Research, and Treatment
337 Citations1988Barent W. Walsh, Paul Rosen
Comprehensive PsychiatryThe relationship between dissociative symptoms, alexithymia, impulsivity, sexual abuse, and self-mutilation
309 Citations1996Caron Zlotnick, M. Tracie Shea +4 more
The study found that self-mutilators displayed a greater degree of dissociative symptoms and alexithymia and a greater number of self-injurious behaviors, as well as higher rates of childhood sexual abuse, than nonmutilator in a sample of female inpatients.
Development and PsychopathologyChild maltreatment, attachment, and the self system: Emergence of an internal state lexicon in toddlers at high social risk
303 Citations1994Marjorie Beeghly, Dante Cicchetti
New Directions for Child and Adolescent DevelopmentDevelopmental sequelae of maltreatment in infancy
297 Citations1981Byron Egeland, Alan Sroufe
American Journal of PsychiatryRelationship of dissociation to self-mutilation and childhood abuse in borderline personality disorder
268 Citations1995Beth S. Brodsky, Marylène Cloître +1 more
Female inpatients with borderline personality disorder who dissociate may represent a sizable subgroup of patients with the disorder who are at especially high risk for self-mutilation, childhood abuse, depression, and utilization of psychiatric treatment.
Journal of Traumatic StressChildhood sexual abuse as a precursor to depression and self-destructive behavior in adulthood
256 Citations1995Arne C. Boudewyn, Joan H. Liem
Findings affirm previous findings of a relationshop between CSA and depression and self-destructiveness in adult females and extend them to males.
Suicide and Life-Threatening BehaviorSelf‐Mutilation and Eating Disorders
249 Citations1989Armando R. Favazza, Lori DeRosear +1 more
It is postulate that the combination of self-mutilation, anorexia, bulimia, and other symptoms (such as episodic alcohol abuse and swallowing foreign objects) may be manifestations of an impulse control disorder known as the "deliberate self-harm syndrome."
Journal of Psychiatric ResearchImpulsivity in self-mutilative behavior: Psychometric and biological findings
243 Citations1997Sabine Herpertz, Henning Saß +1 more
American Journal of PsychiatrySelf-destructive behavior in battered children
225 Citations1978Arthur H. Green, Stevens, AAE Alquin +4 more
Self-destructive behavior, including suicide attempts and self-mutilation, was potentiated by interrelated variables operating in the abused child and his environment.
Child Abuse & NeglectChildren's strategies for coping with adverse home environments: An interpretation using attachment theory
216 Citations1992P Crittenden
Both marginally maltreated and adequately reared 1-year-olds were more difficult than either older or younger children from those groups but at all ages cooperation was the dominant pattern.
Child Abuse & NeglectChildhood attachment and abuse: Long-term effects on adult attachment, depression, and conflict resolution
197 Citations1997Thomas Styron, Ronnie Janoff‐Bulman
Although both adult romantic attachment and respondents' depression scores were best accounted for by childhood attachment to mother and father rather than abuse history, the opposite pattern of results emerged for conflict resolution behaviors.
American Journal of PsychiatryRelation of clinical variables to dissociative phenomena in eating disorders
189 Citations1990Mark A. Demitrack, Frank W. Putnam +3 more
In this study 30 female patients with eating disorders were compared with 30 age-matched normal female subjects and the patients demonstrated significantly higher levels of dissociative psychopathology than the comparison subjects.
American Journal of PsychiatryParents' emotional neglect and overprotection according to the recollections of patients with borderline personality disorder [published erratum appears in Am J Psychiatry 1991 Sep;148(9):1282]
174 Citations1991Hallie Zweig-Frank, Joel Paris
The findings showed that the patients with borderline personality disorder remembered both their fathers and their mothers as having been significantly less caring and more controlling than did the nonborderline patients.
Infant Behavior and DevelopmentMother-infant reengagement following the still-face: The role of maternal emotional availability an infant affect regulation
171 Citations1996Nina Kogan, Alice S. Carter
Development and PsychopathologyThe role of child maltreatment and attachment style in adolescent relationshipviolence
160 Citations1998Christine Wekerle, David A. Wolfe
Attachment self-ratings were found to function as a moderator of child maltreatment in predicting primarily male coercive behavior towards a relationship partner as well as predicting male's experience of coercion from a partner.
The British Journal of PsychiatryPersonality Disorder and Self-wounding
155 Citations1992Digby Tantam, Jane Whittaker
Repeated self-wounding is one criterion of borderline personality disorder but it is preferred to consider it an 'addictive' behaviour rather than an expression of a wider disorder.
Acta Psychiatrica ScandinavicaParental bonding and vulnerability to adolescent suicide
138 Citations1994Graham Martin, Susan Waite
It seems that the PBI may play a role in identification of vulnerable adolescents; further, it both elucidates aspects of adolescent‐parent interaction and points toward areas for intervention with at‐risk adolescents.
British Journal of Clinical PsychologyCognitive therapy of dissociative symptoms associated with trauma
133 Citations1996Helen Kennerley
Practical ways in which the cognitive therapist can use standard and schema-focused cognitive therapy to help clients to better deal with the distressing aspects of dissociation are discussed.
The Canadian Journal of PsychiatryPsychological Risk Factors for Dissociation and Self-Mutilation in Female Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder
133 Citations1994Hallie Zweig-Frank, Joel Paris +1 more
The findings do not support theories that dissociation and self-mutilation in borderline personality disorder are associated with childhood trauma, and psychological risk factors were not related to Dissociative Experiences Scale scores.
The Canadian Journal of PsychiatryChildhood Antecedents of Self-Destructiveness in Borderline Personality Disorder
122 Citations1997Elyse Dubo, Mary C. Zanarini +2 more
Both parental sexual abuse and emotional neglect appear to play a role in the etiology of self-destructive behaviour in BPD, and the results highlight the importance of considering the effects of sexual abuse within its environmental context and suggest that the etology of borderline symptoms is likely multifactorial.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental DiseaseProneness to Dissociation and Traumatic Childhood Events
111 Citations1994Harvey J. Irwin
Standard regression analysis revealed three predictors of dissociative experiences in adulthood, namely familial loss in childhood, intrafamilial sexual abuse, and extrafam familial sexual abuse.
American Journal of PsychiatrySelf-cutting after rape
104 Citations1989Gail Greenspan, S E Samuel
The authors present three cases of women who began to cut themselves superficially after they had been raped, and no such findings have been reported in the current literature on short- and long-term effects of rape.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental DiseaseSelf-Mutilation and the Borderline Personality
99 Citations1982Charles B. Schaffer, Jacqueline Carroll +1 more
A review of clinical records revealed that self-mutilators were more likely than controls to have been diagnosed as borderline and to have received a greater number of different diagnoses during their treatment career.
American Journal of PsychotherapySelf-Mutilation and Self-Blame in Incest Victims
93 Citations1987Shanti Shapiro
A case is made for self-blame as the psychic link between children's experiences of incestuous sexual abuse and their self-mutilating behavior later in life.
HypatiaThe Voice on the Skin: Self-Mutilation and Merleau-Ponty's Theory of Language
79 Citations1996Janice McLane
Acta Psychiatrica ScandinavicaSelf‐mutilation in antisocial personality (disorder)
75 Citations1976Matti Virkkunen
It seemed that the restricted environment with an absence of sufficient stimuli was crucial in triggering self‐mutilation in persons with antisocial personality (disorder).
Clinical PediatricsSelf-harm Behaviors (Carving)
59 Citations1989Richard H. Schwartz, Peter Cohen +2 more
Evaluated adolescent female patients in a long-term outpatient, self-payment, therapeutic community-type of adolescent drug treatment program participated in a descriptive survey of "carving" behaviors, finding multiple suicide attempts were associated with habitual carving.
Journal of Traumatic StressEducational, occupational, and relationship histories of men who were sexually and/or physically abused as children
53 Citations1994David Lisak, Laura Luster
Sexually abused men reported significantly greater difficulties than nonabused men at all levels of education: grade school, high school and college, and reported more negative job experiences and more negative experiences in relationships.
Journal of Social and Personal RelationshipsLong-Term Effects of Parental Divorce on Love Relationships: Divorce as Attachment Disruption
49 Citations1998Gina M. Hayashi, Bonnie R. Strickland
The Canadian Journal of PsychiatryPsychological Risk Factors and Self-Mutilation in Male Patients with Bpd
43 Citations1994Hallie Zweig-Frank, Joel Paris +1 more
The results do not support the theory that abuse and dissociation account for self-mutilation in the personality disorders.
Journal of Interpersonal ViolenceSelf-Mutilating Behavior of Sexually Abused Female Adults in Turkey
32 Citations1998Isin Baral, Kaan Kora +2 more
It is found that SMB and sexual abuse are closely related to eating disorders, particularly anorexia, and the relationship betweenSMB and suicide attempts was found statistically significant.
Transcultural Psychiatric Research ReviewAbstracts and Reviews : 1. General and Theoretical Issues
31 Citations1989Armando R. Favazza
Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric NursingSelf‐Mutilating Behavior
29 Citations1997Corinne Kehrberg
This framework offers a background to nursing interventions focused on identifying at-risk adolescents and treating this bewildering behavior and mental health professionals find treatment of SMB a challenge and nursing is in a unique position to provide effective interventions.
Holistic Nursing PracticeLoss of a parent in childhood: Attachment and coping in a model of adolescent resilience
23 Citations1995Marjorie M. Heinzer
Adolescent resilience after parental death in childhood and its relationship to attachment and coping were examined in this cross-sectional correlational study and hypotheses were partially supported in that adaptive coping was a significant predictor of the measures of resilience.