Research Output
From Childhood Trauma to Self-Harm: An Investigation of Theoretical Pathways among Female Prisoners: Childhood Trauma and Self-Harm in Female Prisoners
  Despite empirical evidence suggesting complex associations between childhood trauma and self-harm, there is a dearth of research investigating this association in the female prison population. The current study explored pathways to self-harm following childhood trauma, by investigating the mediating roles of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, emotion regulation and dissociation, in this relationship, within a sample of 89 female prisoners.
Methods
Cross-sectional, interview-format, questionnaire study within a female prison population. Measures of childhood trauma, self-harm, PTSD, emotion regulation and dissociation were administered.
Results
The majority of the sample (58.4%) reported history of self-harm. Bootstrapped mediation analyses indicated an indirect effect of emotion regulation on the relationship between childhood trauma and self-harm. An indirect effect was also found for PTSD arousal/reactivity cluster of symptoms. Multiple mediation analyses revealed that interactional effects were present for emotion regulation and arousal/reactivity, and emotion regulation and dissociation, respectively.
Conclusion
Self-harm is highly prevalent among female prisoners. Interventions promoting emotion regulation and addressing arousal/reactivity symptoms following traumatization may provide an effective way of addressing this problem.

  • Type:

    Article

  • Date:

    22 November 2016

  • Publication Status:

    Published

  • Publisher

    Wiley-Blackwell

  • DOI:

    10.1002/cpp.2058

  • ISSN:

    1063-3995

  • Library of Congress:

    RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry

  • Dewey Decimal Classification:

    616.8 Nervous & mental disorders

  • Funders:

    Edinburgh Napier Funded

Citation

Howard, R., Karatzias, T., Power, K., & Mahoney, A. (2017). From Childhood Trauma to Self-Harm: An Investigation of Theoretical Pathways among Female Prisoners: Childhood Trauma and Self-Harm in Female Prisoners. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 24(4), 942-951. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2058

Authors

Keywords

Self-Injurious Behaviour; Child Abuse; Emotion Regulation; Posttraumatic Stress Disorders; Prisons

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    From childhood trauma to self-harm: An investigation of theoretical pathways among female prisoners

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    This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Howard, R., Karatzias, T., Power, K., and Mahoney, A. (2016) From Childhood Trauma to Self-Harm: An Investigation of Theoretical Pathways among Female Prisoners. Clin. Psychol. Psychother., doi: 10.1002/cpp.2058, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2058. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving

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