Emotion regulation as a mediator of the relation between emotion socialization and deliberate self-harm.

This study examined (a) whether retrospective reports of specific parent responses to sadness (i.e., reward, punishment, neglect, override, magnification) were related to deliberate self-harm (DSH) and (b) whether difficulties regulating emotions (i.e., difficulties monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotions) mediated those relations. One hundred eighteen college students completed measures of parental emotion socialization, emotion regulation difficulties, and DSH. Parental reward and override of sadness were directly related to lower DSH scores. Parental punishment and neglect of sadness were related to higher DSH scores, and these associations were mediated by difficulties evaluating emotions. In other words, parental punishment and neglect of sadness may place individuals at risk for DSH by fostering negative evaluations of emotional experiences and the belief that nothing can be done to effectively manage emotions.

[1]  T. Olino,et al.  Identifying clinically distinct subgroups of self-injurers among young adults: a latent class analysis. , 2008, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[2]  K. L. Gratz.  Targeting emotion dysregulation in the treatment of self-injury. , 2007, Journal of clinical psychology.

[3]  J. Silk,et al.  The Role of the Family Context in the Development of Emotion Regulation. , 2007, Social development.

[4]  E. D. Klonsky,et al.  The functions of deliberate self-injury: a review of the evidence. , 2007, Clinical psychology review.

[5]  M. Diddams,et al.  Affect Regulation as a Mediator of Attachment and Deliberate Self‐Harm , 2007 .

[6]  J. Zeman,et al.  Emotion Regulation in Children and Adolescents , 2006, Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP.

[7]  K. L. Gratz.  Risk factors for deliberate self-harm among female college students: the role and interaction of childhood maltreatment, emotional inexpressivity, and affect intensity/reactivity. , 2006, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[8]  K. Schonert-Reichl,et al.  Nonsuicidal Self-Harm Among Community Adolescents: Understanding the “Whats” and “Whys” of Self-Harm , 2005 .

[9]  C. Magai,et al.  Do parents respond in different ways when children feel different emotions? The emotional context of parenting , 2005, Development and Psychopathology.

[10]  David Matsumoto,et al.  Development and validation of a measure of display rule knowledge: the display rule assessment inventory. , 2005, Emotion.

[11]  K. L. Gratz,et al.  Multidimensional Assessment of Emotion Regulation and Dysregulation: Development, Factor Structure, and Initial Validation of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale , 2004 .

[12]  K. L. Gratz,et al.  Risk Factors for and Functions of Deliberate Self‐Harm: An Empirical and Conceptual Review , 2003 .

[13]  S. West,et al.  A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. , 2002, Psychological methods.

[14]  K. L. Gratz,et al.  Measurement of Deliberate Self-Harm: Preliminary Data on the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory , 2001 .

[15]  J. Zeman,et al.  Development and Initial Validation of the Children's Sadness Management Scale , 2001 .

[16]  M. Reiser,et al.  Parental reactions to children's negative emotions: longitudinal relations to quality of children's social functioning. , 1999, Child development.

[17]  K. Suyemoto,et al.  The functions of self-mutilation. , 1998, Clinical psychology review.

[18]  A R Favazza,et al.  The coming of age of self-mutilation. , 1998, The Journal of nervous and mental disease.

[19]  John M. Gottman,et al.  Parental meta-emotion philosophy and the emotional life of families: Theoretical models and preliminary data. , 1996 .

[20]  Ross A. Thompson.  Emotion regulation: a theme in search of definition. , 1994, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[21]  A. Favazza.  Repetitive Self-Mutilation , 1992 .

[22]  R. DiClemente,et al.  Prevalence and correlates of cutting behavior: risk for HIV transmission. , 1991, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[23]  A. Favazza,et al.  The plight of chronic self-mutilators , 2004, Community Mental Health Journal.

[24]  K. L. Gratz,et al.  Risk factors for deliberate self-harm among college students. , 2002, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[25]  Tracy L. Spinrad,et al.  Parental Socialization of Emotion. , 1998, Psychological inquiry.

[26]  John M. Gottman,et al.  Meta-Emotion: How Families Communicate Emotionally , 1997 .

[27]  C. Zlotnick,et al.  The relationship between dissociative symptoms, alexithymia, impulsivity, sexual abuse, and self-mutilation. , 1996, Comprehensive psychiatry.

[28]  Nathan A. Fox,et al.  The development of emotion regulation : biological and behavioral considerations , 1994 .

[29]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.