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Repetitive skin‐cutting: Parental bonding, personality and gender
Author(s) -
Marchetto M. J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
psychology and psychotherapy: theory, research and practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.102
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 2044-8341
pISSN - 1476-0835
DOI - 10.1348/147608305x69795
Subject(s) - borderline personality disorder , medicine , clinical psychology , personality , deliberate self harm , psychiatry , psychology , injury prevention , poison control , medical emergency , social psychology
Objectives. This study examines (a) the extent to which repetitive skin‐cutting is most prevalent among women and those with a history of trauma; and (b) among those skin‐cutters without a history of trauma, the extent to which borderline personality disorder (BPD) features as a primary diagnosis and whether disturbed parental bonding might be associated with this form of self‐harm. Method. Details of gender and reported experiences of trauma were recorded for a large, consecutive sample of skin‐cutters ( N =517) who attended a general hospital. Psychiatric diagnoses and parental bonding instrument (PBI) scores were obtained for a subsample of skin‐cutters ( N =81) and comparison group participants without experiences of trauma. Results. No gender differences were observed among skin‐cutters, most of whom reported experiences of trauma. BPD was recorded for a minority of those skin‐cutters without a history of trauma. PBI scores discriminated between non‐BPD skin cutters and non‐BPD comparison participants without a history of trauma. Conclusions. Although these results provide further confirmation of a potential association between prior trauma and repetitive skin‐cutting, they rigorously challenge the validity of reported gender differences for this behaviour. Further, this study has identified that repetitive skin‐cutting can arise independently of BPD and prior trauma. Clinical implications of these results and suggested directions for future research are discussed.