Stressful life events and deliberate self-harm: Exploring the specificity of stressful life events and emotion regulation facets

Abstract

Objective: The current study aimed to examine if specific emotion regulation facets mediated the relationship between different stressful life events and deliberate self-harm. It examined both the cumulative and specific effects of stressful life events. Methods: A quantitative correlational survey method was adopted using several questionnaires to explore the relationship between stressful life events, emotion dysregulation and self-harm engagement. The sample included 164 individuals who were seeking support from a secondary care NHS service. Analysis was conducted using Mplus 6 and involved two mediation models. Results: The results demonstrated that different types of stressful life events were significantly associated with engagement in deliberate self-harm. This varied depending on the stressful life event, in which some stressful life events decreased self-harm engagement. In isolation the number of stressful life events was not significantly associated with self-harm, indicating that there was no cumulative effect of stressful life events on engagement in deliberate self-harm. However, experiencing more stressful life events was significantly associated with deliberate self-harm through specific emotion regulation facets. Conclusions: Results indicated that stressful life events are more likely to contribute to the engagement in deliberate self-harm when they coexist. The current findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the mediating processes between stressful life events and deliberate self-harm. They specifically demonstrate that particular pathways to deliberate self-harm are not determined by the presence of stressful life events, but the ways in which emotion regulation ability is refined and developed during their presence, which subsequently effects the individuals need to use deliberate self-harm as a means of managing their distress.