Risk factors for deliberate self harm among female college students: the role and interaction of childhood maltreatment, emotional inexpressivity, and affect intensity/reactivity.
Despite the clinical importance of deliberate self harm, research on the risk factors for self harm among nonclinical populations has been limited. This study examined the role of childhood maltreatment, emotional inexpressivity, and affect intensity/reactivity in the self harm behavior of 249 female college students. Childhood maltreatment and low positive affect intensity/reactivity reliably distinguished women with frequent self harm from women with no history of self harm, as did the combination of greater maltreatment, greater inexpressivity, and higher levels of affect intensity/reactivity (global and negative) Among women with a history of self harm, emotional inexpressivity was associated with more frequent self harm, as was the combination of greater maltreatment, greater inexpressivity, and lower levels of positive affect intensity/reactivity.
The American journal of orthopsychiatry