Is the association of deliberate self-harm with emotional relief stable or dependent on emotional context?

Validation and assessment of the self-injurious behavior scale for tic disorders (SIBS-T)

Self-injurious behavior (SIB) is a well-known phenomenon in patients with chronic tic disorders (CTD). To investigate prospectively symptomatology of SIB in adults with CTD, we developed and validated the self-injurious behavior scale for tic disorders (SIBS-T). Patients completed the SIBS-T and a variety of assessments for tics and comorbidities. We investigated SIB frequency, internal consistency of the SIBS-T, and carried out an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). We enrolled n = 123 adult patients with CTD. SIB was reported by n = 103 patients (83.7%). The most frequently reported SIB were beating/pushing/throwing and were found in 79.6% of cases. Patients with SIB had significantly higher tic severity measured with the Adult Tic Questionnaire (ATQ) (p = 0.002) as well as higher severity of psychiatric comorbidities such as obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) (p < 0.001,), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (p < 0.001,), and anxiety (p = 0.001). In addition, patients with SIB had significantly lower quality of life (p = 0.002). Pearson correlations demonstrated significant associations between SIB and severity of tics (p < 0.001), depression (p = 0.005), ADHD (p = 0.008), and borderline personality traits (p = 0.014). Consequently, higher SIBS-T also correlated with greater impairment of quality of life (p < 0.001). The internal consistency of the SIBS-T was good (α = 0.88). The EFA confirmed a single factor underlying the SIBS-T.

Self-injury motives: A person-centered examination

INTRODUCTION

People report multiple motives for nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), but few studies have examined how these motives relate to one another. This study identified person-centered classes of NSSI motives, their NSSI and psychopathological correlates, and their utility in predicting future NSSI across two samples.

METHODS

Participants were adolescents and young adults (aged 15-35) with recent NSSI recruited from online forums (n = 155, Sample 1) or the community (n = 127, Sample 2). Participants completed measures of NSSI, emotion regulation difficulties, borderline personality disorder (BPD), depression, and reported on their NSSI over 12 months.

RESULTS

Latent profile analyses yielded five classes in each sample: low interpersonal, self-punishment/interpersonal, moderate intra/interpersonal, high intra/interpersonal, and mainly interpersonal motives. Classes were not associated with lifetime NSSI characteristics, but highly motivated participants reported more severe depression and BPD symptoms, and greater emotion dysregulation than low-motivated participants. Those in the mainly interpersonal (Sample 1) and self-punishment/interpersonal (Sample 2) motives classes reported greater NSSI frequency during follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

This study identified five classes of NSSI motives. Participants who report multiple motives for NSSI may be more clinically severe, whereas those who report strong desires to communicate with others or punish themselves may be at the highest risk for more frequent NSSI over time.

Depresión, desregulación emocional y estrategias de afrontamiento en adolescentes con conductas de autolesión

En México, el estudio de la autolesión cuenta con pocas investigaciones, y menos si se trata de estudios que conformen posibles modelos explicativos. Teniendo esto en cuenta, en el presente trabajo se planteó como objetivo conocer la relación de la autolesión con la depresión, la desregulación emocional y los estilos de afrontamiento, con el fin de generar un modelo explicativo de la problemática. El estudio se realizó a partir de un diseño cuantitativo, transversal y con alcance explicativo, y se contó con una muestra de 5835 adolescentes (Medad = 11-15 años) inscritos en 62 secundarias públicas del estado de Sonora. Se realizaron regresiones logísticas para el análisis de los datos, y como resultado se encontró que, para los estudiantes con autolesión severa (3.54 %), el modelo explica el 61 % de la varianza en los datos (R2 de Nagelkerke = .61) y clasifica correctamente al 84.1 % de los participantes; mientras que, en la autolesión leve (5.29 %), el modelo explica el 72 % de la varianza en los datos (R2 de Nagelkerke = .72) y clasifica correctamente al 88.2 % de los estudiantes. Asimismo, las dimensiones de depresión mostraron el mayor nivel explicativo (cognitiva-afectiva, somática) y correlaciones positivas con la desregulación emocional y el estilo de afrontamiento de evitación, así como correlaciones negativas con el estilo de afrontamiento de aproximación. Al final se discute respecto a la importancia de las variables independientes para futuras investigaciones, y sobre los resultados anómalos y otros datos de interés.

Implicit Assessment of Self-Injury Related Outcome Expectancies: A Comparison of Three behavioural Tasks

According to Social Cognitive Theory, the anticipated consequences of a behaviour (outcome expectancies), influence the likelihood of engaging in a behaviour. Results from self-report studies suggest that people who have self-injured expect self-injury will regulate emotions while people who have never self-injured expect self-injury to result in pain. In this study we trialled three experimental tasks measuring implicit self-injury related outcome expectancies. 150 Australian university students aged 18-45 (M = 21.45, SD = 3.84) completed the experimental tasks (Sentence Completion Task, Implicit Association Tests, Covariation Bias Task) within a laboratory setting. Results revealed that implicit associations with affect regulation, pain, and communication differentiated people according to self-injury history in the sentence completion task. The strength of implicit associations with affect regulation also predicted the recency of self-injury. People who had self-injured, but not in the past 12 months appeared to have a bias towards associating images of self-injury and neutral words when compared to people who had recently self-injured. Implicit associations, as measured by the Implicit Association Tests did not significantly differentiate participants by self-injury history. Results suggest that the sentence completion task could further research and theoretical understanding of the role of implicit outcome expectancies in facilitating self-injury.