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Borderline Personality Disorder and Deliberate Self‐Harm: Does Experiential Avoidance Play a Role?
Author(s) -
Chapman Alexander L.,
Specht Matthew W.,
Cellucci Tony
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1521/suli.2005.35.4.388
Subject(s) - experiential avoidance , borderline personality disorder , harm , experiential learning , psychology , association (psychology) , clinical psychology , harm avoidance , personality , self destructive behavior , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , psychotherapist , psychiatry , big five personality traits , anxiety , medicine , social psychology , medical emergency , mathematics education
The theory that borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with experiential avoidance, and that experiential avoidance mediates the association between BPD and deliberate, nonsuicidal self‐harm was examined. Female inmate participants ( N = 105) were given structured diagnostic assessments of BPD, as well as several measures of experiential avoidance. There was a high lifetime prevalence of past self‐harm (47.6%). Higher dimensional scores representing BPD severity were associated with higher self‐harm frequency and greater experiential avoidance. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that experiential avoidance did not mediate the association between BPD and self‐harm, although thought suppression was associated with self‐harm frequency.