Psychological characteristics of self-injurious behavior

This investigation explored the psychological characteristics of self-injury, as well as the frequency of self-injury in a college sample. Two hundred and twenty individuals who self-injure were recruited from a self-help website. These were compared to college students who were not specifically seeking help for self-injury. It was found that 20% of the college students reported having self-injured at some point in their lives. The participants were given the following measures: Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and the Trauma Symptoms Checklist (TSC). A discriminant function analysis was conducted to differentiate the groups. Depression from the TSC and emotional neglect from the CTQ most strongly differentiated the internet group from the college non-self-injuring group. Additionally, the TAS was strongly related to the function differentiating these groups. The college self-injury group could not be differentiated from either of the two groups. This study suggests that individuals who self-injure may not have received adequate emotional nurturance, and currently have high levels of negative affect which they wish to avoid.