ROLE OF CUMULATIVE TRAUMA AND EMOTION REGULATION IN SELF–HARM URGES AMONG PRISON INMATES
Abstract
This study investigated the role of cumulative trauma and emotion regulation in self–harm urge among prison inmates. Participants were one hundred and forty nine (149) male prison inmates of Nsukka prison who were randomly selected among the population of prison inmates in the prison. Their ages ranged between 23 to 65 years with a mean age of 28.49 years (SD = 6.42). Cross sectional design was adopted. Result of a Hieracrhical Multiple Regression analysis showed that cumulative trauma was a positively significant predictor of self-harm urge (β = .42, p < .001), accounting for 17% of the variance in self-harm urge (∆R2 = .17). The result also showed that cognitive reappraisal was a negatively significant predictor of self-harm urge among the inmates (β = -.37, p < .001), accounting for 14% of the variance in self-harm urge (∆R2 = .14). Expressive suppression did not significantly predict self-harm urge (β = .15), although it added an additional 2% to the explanation of the variance in self-harm urge (∆R2 = .02). The 3 predictor variables in the regression model contributed 33% to the explanation of the variance in self-harm urge among the prison inmates collectively (total AR2 = .33). The implications of these findings were discussed, and suggestions for further studies were equally made.References
Aldao, A., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2010). Specificity of cognitive emotion regulation strategies: a transdiagnostic examination. Behaviour Research and Therapy 48, 974–983. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2010.06.002.
Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schweizer, S. (2010). Emotion-regulation stratgies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 217-237.
American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th edition (DSM-IV) 4. Washington: American Psychiatric Association.
Aronson, E., & Caelsmith, J. M. (1962). Performance expectancy as a determinant of actual performance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 65, 178-182.
Babiker, G., & Arnold, L. (1997). The language of injury: Comprehending self-mutilation. Leicester: BPS books.
Brent, D. A., Johnson, B., Bartle, S., Bridge, J., Rather, C., Matha, J. (1993a). Personality disorder tendency to impulsive violence, and suicidal behaviour in adolescents. Journal of American Academy Child Adolescents Psychiatry, 32, 69-75.
Breuer, J., & Freud, S., (1957). Studies on hysteria J. Strachey, Trans. New York: Basic Books. Original work published 1895.
Cloitre, M., Miranda, R., Stovall-McClough, R., Chase, K., & Han, H. (2005). Beyond PTSD: Emotion regulation and interpersonal problems as predictors of functional impairment in survivors of childhood abuse. Behavior Therapy, 36(2), 119–124.
Cole, P. M., Michel, M. K., & Teti, L. O. (1994). The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation: A clinical perspective. (Vol. 59, pp. 73-100). Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1166139?origin=JSTOR-pdf
Conor, M. J. (2010). The prevalence nature and Aetiological theories of self-harming behaviour. On htt://www.kentrustweb.org.uk. Retrieved on 13/7/2015.
Favazza, A. R., & Rosenthal, R. J. (1993). Diagnostic issues in self-mutilation. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 44(2), 134–140.
Ferguson, D. M., & Lynskey, M. T. (1995). Suicide attempts and suicidal ideation in birth cohort of 16 years old New Zealanders. Journal of American Academy Child Adolescents Psychiatry, 34, 1308-1317.
Freud, A. (1946). The ego and the mechanisms of defense. New York: International Universities Press.
Gratz, K. (2003). Risk factors and functions of deliberate self-harm: An empirical and conceptual review. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice, 10, 192–205.
Gratz, K. L., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioural Assessment, 26(1), 41-54.
Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271–299.
Gross, J. J. (2002). Emotion regulation: Affective, cognitive, and social consequences
Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 348-362
Hawton, K., Clements, A., Sakarovitch, C., Simkin, S., & Deeks, J. J. (2001). Suicide in doctors: A study of risk according to gender, seniority, and specialty in medical practitioners in England and Wales, 1979-1995. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 55, 296-300.
Hawton, K., Rodham, K., Evans, E., & Weatherall, R. (2002). Deliberate self-harm in adolescents: self-report survey in schools in England. British Medical Journal, 325, 1207–11.
House, A. S., Van Horn, E., Coppeans, C., & Stepleman, L. M. (2011). Interpersonal trauma and discriminatory events as predictors of suicidal and nonsuicidal self-injury in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons. Traumatology, 17(2), 75-85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1534765610395621
Hawton, K., Kingsbury, S., Steinhardt, K., James, A., & Fagg, J. (1999). Repetition of deliberate self-harm by adolescents: the role of psychological factors, Journal of Adolescence, 22(3): 369–378, doi:10.1006/jado.1999.0228, PMID 10462427
Hawton, K., Zahl, D., & Weatherall, R. (2003). Suicide following deliberate self-harm: long-term follow-up of patients who presented to a general hospital, British Journal of Psychiatry 182: 537–542,
doi:10.1192/bjp.182.6.537.
In-Albon, T., Bürli, M., Ruf, C., & Schmid, M. (2013). Non-suicidal self-injury and emotion regulation: a review on facial emotion recognition and facial mimicry. Child Adolescent Psychiatry Mental Health, 7, 5. doi: 10.1186/1753-2000-7-5
Ineme, M. E., & Osinowo, H. O. (2015). Development and validation of prison inmates self-harm urges scale: A psychometric study. Ife Psychologia, 23(1), 17-31.
Katy (2008) Understanding why you self-harm. Support and resources for survivors of rape and sexual abuse. Pandora’s Aquarium. Pandora’s Project.
Kira, I. A., Templin, T., Lewandowski, L., Ashby, J. S., Oladele, A., & Odenat, L. (2012). Cumulative trauma disorder scale (CTD): Two studies. Psychology, 3(9), 643-656.
Koole, S. L. (2009). The psychology of emotion regulation: An integrative review. (23 ed., Vol. 1, pp. 4-41). Psychology Press. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699930802619031
Kulkarni, M. R. (2010). Childhood violence exposure on emotion regulation and PTSD in adult survivors. Ph.D thesis. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.
Layne, C. M., Greeson, J. K. P., Ostrowski, P. S. A., Kim, S. R. L., Briggs, V. E. C. & Fairbank, J. A. & Pynoos, R. S. (2014) Cumulative Trauma Exposure and High Risk Behavior in Adolescence: Findings From the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Core Data Set. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 6(1), 40–49
Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological stress and the coping process. New York: McGraw Hill.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal and coping. New York: Springer.
Linehan, M. M., Rizvi, S. L., Welch, S. S., & Page, B. (2006). Suicide and personality disorders. In: Hawton K, van Heeringen K, editors. International handbook of suicide and attempted suicide. Chichester, England: Wiley.
Mikolajczak, M., Petrides, K. V. & Hurry, J. (2009). Adolescents choosing self-harm as an emotion regulation strategy: The protective role of trait emotional intelligence. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 48, 181–193
Niedenthal, P. M., Ric, F., & Krauth-Gruber, S. (2006). Psychology of emotion: Interpersonal, experiential, and cognitive approaches. chapter 5, regulation of emotions, pp. 155-196. New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Niven, K., Totterdell, P., & Holman, D. (2009). A classification of controlled interpersonal affect regulation strategies. Emotion, 9: 498–509. doi:10.1037/a0015962.
Nock, M. A. (2010). Self-injury. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, 339-363.
Nock, M., & Prinstein, M. (2004). A functional approach to the assessment of self-mutlititative behaviour. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72, 885-890.
Sampler, R. E., Taft, C. T., King, D. W., & King, L. A. (2004). Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and parenting satisfaction among a national sample of male Vietnam veterans. Journal of Traumatic Stress,17:311–315.
Sloan, D. M., & Kring A. M. (2009). Emotion regulation and psychopathology. New York: Guilford Press.
Spaapen, D. L., Waters, F., Brummer, L., Stopa, L., & Bucks, R. S. (2014). The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire: Validation of the ERQ-9 in two community samples. Psychological Assessment, 26(1), 46-54. doi: 10.1037/a0034474
Swann, W. B., Jr. (1983). Self-verification: Bringing social reality into harmony with the self. In J. Suls & A. G. Greenwald (Eds.), Psychological perspectives on the self (2, pp. 33–66), Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Thompson, R. A. (1991). Emotional regulation and emotional development. Educational Psychology Review, 3, 269–307.
Thompson, R. A. (2001) Childhood anxiety disorders from the perspective of emotion regulation and attachment. In: Vasey MW, Dadds MR, The Development of Anxiety. London: Oxford University Press; 2001; pp. 160–183.
Van der, K. B. A. (1996). The complexity of adaptation to trauma: Self-regulation, stimulus, discrimination, and characterological development. In: B. A van der Kolk, A. C McFarlane, L. Weisaeth, (Eds). Traumatic stress: The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body and society. pp. 182–213. New York: Guilford.
Whitlock, J., Muehlenkamp, J., Eckenrode, J., Purington, A. M. P. S., Gina Baral, A. M. P. H., Barreira, P. M. D., & Kress, V. (2012). Nonsuicidal self-injury as a gateway to suicide in young adults. Journal of Adolescent Health, 18, 20 -322. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.09.010
Zeman, J., Cassano, M., Perry-Parrish, C., & Stegall, S. (2006). Emotion regulation in children and adolescents. Journal of Developmental and Behavioural Pediatrics 27, 155–168. doi:10.1097/00004703-200604000-00014.
Zlotnick, C., Mattia, J. I., Zimmerman, M. (1999). Clinical correlates of self-mutilation in a sample of general psychiatric patients. Journal of Nervous Mental Disorder, 187, 296-301.
Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schweizer, S. (2010). Emotion-regulation stratgies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 217-237.
American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th edition (DSM-IV) 4. Washington: American Psychiatric Association.
Aronson, E., & Caelsmith, J. M. (1962). Performance expectancy as a determinant of actual performance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 65, 178-182.
Babiker, G., & Arnold, L. (1997). The language of injury: Comprehending self-mutilation. Leicester: BPS books.
Brent, D. A., Johnson, B., Bartle, S., Bridge, J., Rather, C., Matha, J. (1993a). Personality disorder tendency to impulsive violence, and suicidal behaviour in adolescents. Journal of American Academy Child Adolescents Psychiatry, 32, 69-75.
Breuer, J., & Freud, S., (1957). Studies on hysteria J. Strachey, Trans. New York: Basic Books. Original work published 1895.
Cloitre, M., Miranda, R., Stovall-McClough, R., Chase, K., & Han, H. (2005). Beyond PTSD: Emotion regulation and interpersonal problems as predictors of functional impairment in survivors of childhood abuse. Behavior Therapy, 36(2), 119–124.
Cole, P. M., Michel, M. K., & Teti, L. O. (1994). The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation: A clinical perspective. (Vol. 59, pp. 73-100). Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1166139?origin=JSTOR-pdf
Conor, M. J. (2010). The prevalence nature and Aetiological theories of self-harming behaviour. On htt://www.kentrustweb.org.uk. Retrieved on 13/7/2015.
Favazza, A. R., & Rosenthal, R. J. (1993). Diagnostic issues in self-mutilation. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 44(2), 134–140.
Ferguson, D. M., & Lynskey, M. T. (1995). Suicide attempts and suicidal ideation in birth cohort of 16 years old New Zealanders. Journal of American Academy Child Adolescents Psychiatry, 34, 1308-1317.
Freud, A. (1946). The ego and the mechanisms of defense. New York: International Universities Press.
Gratz, K. (2003). Risk factors and functions of deliberate self-harm: An empirical and conceptual review. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice, 10, 192–205.
Gratz, K. L., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioural Assessment, 26(1), 41-54.
Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271–299.
Gross, J. J. (2002). Emotion regulation: Affective, cognitive, and social consequences
Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 348-362
Hawton, K., Clements, A., Sakarovitch, C., Simkin, S., & Deeks, J. J. (2001). Suicide in doctors: A study of risk according to gender, seniority, and specialty in medical practitioners in England and Wales, 1979-1995. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 55, 296-300.
Hawton, K., Rodham, K., Evans, E., & Weatherall, R. (2002). Deliberate self-harm in adolescents: self-report survey in schools in England. British Medical Journal, 325, 1207–11.
House, A. S., Van Horn, E., Coppeans, C., & Stepleman, L. M. (2011). Interpersonal trauma and discriminatory events as predictors of suicidal and nonsuicidal self-injury in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons. Traumatology, 17(2), 75-85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1534765610395621
Hawton, K., Kingsbury, S., Steinhardt, K., James, A., & Fagg, J. (1999). Repetition of deliberate self-harm by adolescents: the role of psychological factors, Journal of Adolescence, 22(3): 369–378, doi:10.1006/jado.1999.0228, PMID 10462427
Hawton, K., Zahl, D., & Weatherall, R. (2003). Suicide following deliberate self-harm: long-term follow-up of patients who presented to a general hospital, British Journal of Psychiatry 182: 537–542,
doi:10.1192/bjp.182.6.537.
In-Albon, T., Bürli, M., Ruf, C., & Schmid, M. (2013). Non-suicidal self-injury and emotion regulation: a review on facial emotion recognition and facial mimicry. Child Adolescent Psychiatry Mental Health, 7, 5. doi: 10.1186/1753-2000-7-5
Ineme, M. E., & Osinowo, H. O. (2015). Development and validation of prison inmates self-harm urges scale: A psychometric study. Ife Psychologia, 23(1), 17-31.
Katy (2008) Understanding why you self-harm. Support and resources for survivors of rape and sexual abuse. Pandora’s Aquarium. Pandora’s Project.
Kira, I. A., Templin, T., Lewandowski, L., Ashby, J. S., Oladele, A., & Odenat, L. (2012). Cumulative trauma disorder scale (CTD): Two studies. Psychology, 3(9), 643-656.
Koole, S. L. (2009). The psychology of emotion regulation: An integrative review. (23 ed., Vol. 1, pp. 4-41). Psychology Press. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699930802619031
Kulkarni, M. R. (2010). Childhood violence exposure on emotion regulation and PTSD in adult survivors. Ph.D thesis. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.
Layne, C. M., Greeson, J. K. P., Ostrowski, P. S. A., Kim, S. R. L., Briggs, V. E. C. & Fairbank, J. A. & Pynoos, R. S. (2014) Cumulative Trauma Exposure and High Risk Behavior in Adolescence: Findings From the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Core Data Set. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 6(1), 40–49
Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological stress and the coping process. New York: McGraw Hill.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal and coping. New York: Springer.
Linehan, M. M., Rizvi, S. L., Welch, S. S., & Page, B. (2006). Suicide and personality disorders. In: Hawton K, van Heeringen K, editors. International handbook of suicide and attempted suicide. Chichester, England: Wiley.
Mikolajczak, M., Petrides, K. V. & Hurry, J. (2009). Adolescents choosing self-harm as an emotion regulation strategy: The protective role of trait emotional intelligence. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 48, 181–193
Niedenthal, P. M., Ric, F., & Krauth-Gruber, S. (2006). Psychology of emotion: Interpersonal, experiential, and cognitive approaches. chapter 5, regulation of emotions, pp. 155-196. New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Niven, K., Totterdell, P., & Holman, D. (2009). A classification of controlled interpersonal affect regulation strategies. Emotion, 9: 498–509. doi:10.1037/a0015962.
Nock, M. A. (2010). Self-injury. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, 339-363.
Nock, M., & Prinstein, M. (2004). A functional approach to the assessment of self-mutlititative behaviour. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72, 885-890.
Sampler, R. E., Taft, C. T., King, D. W., & King, L. A. (2004). Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and parenting satisfaction among a national sample of male Vietnam veterans. Journal of Traumatic Stress,17:311–315.
Sloan, D. M., & Kring A. M. (2009). Emotion regulation and psychopathology. New York: Guilford Press.
Spaapen, D. L., Waters, F., Brummer, L., Stopa, L., & Bucks, R. S. (2014). The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire: Validation of the ERQ-9 in two community samples. Psychological Assessment, 26(1), 46-54. doi: 10.1037/a0034474
Swann, W. B., Jr. (1983). Self-verification: Bringing social reality into harmony with the self. In J. Suls & A. G. Greenwald (Eds.), Psychological perspectives on the self (2, pp. 33–66), Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Thompson, R. A. (1991). Emotional regulation and emotional development. Educational Psychology Review, 3, 269–307.
Thompson, R. A. (2001) Childhood anxiety disorders from the perspective of emotion regulation and attachment. In: Vasey MW, Dadds MR, The Development of Anxiety. London: Oxford University Press; 2001; pp. 160–183.
Van der, K. B. A. (1996). The complexity of adaptation to trauma: Self-regulation, stimulus, discrimination, and characterological development. In: B. A van der Kolk, A. C McFarlane, L. Weisaeth, (Eds). Traumatic stress: The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body and society. pp. 182–213. New York: Guilford.
Whitlock, J., Muehlenkamp, J., Eckenrode, J., Purington, A. M. P. S., Gina Baral, A. M. P. H., Barreira, P. M. D., & Kress, V. (2012). Nonsuicidal self-injury as a gateway to suicide in young adults. Journal of Adolescent Health, 18, 20 -322. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.09.010
Zeman, J., Cassano, M., Perry-Parrish, C., & Stegall, S. (2006). Emotion regulation in children and adolescents. Journal of Developmental and Behavioural Pediatrics 27, 155–168. doi:10.1097/00004703-200604000-00014.
Zlotnick, C., Mattia, J. I., Zimmerman, M. (1999). Clinical correlates of self-mutilation in a sample of general psychiatric patients. Journal of Nervous Mental Disorder, 187, 296-301.
Published
2016-06-01
How to Cite
NWONYI, Sampson Kelechi; EFFIONG, James Edem; AGU, Chidi R.
ROLE OF CUMULATIVE TRAUMA AND EMOTION REGULATION IN SELF–HARM URGES AMONG PRISON INMATES.
GOUNI Journal of Management and Social Sciences, [S.l.], v. 4, n. 1, p. 58-71, june 2016.
ISSN 2550-7265. Available at: <http://journal.gouni.edu.ng/index.php/fmss/article/view/13>. Date accessed: 14 may 2018.
Issue
Section
Articles
Keywords
Cumulative Trauma; Emotion Regulation; Self–harm Urge
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors grant the journal copyright
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
