Our
latest article - on Mindfulness and Non-suicidal Self-injury
This
may be of interest to you.
Caltabiano,
G. & Martin, G. (2016). MIndless Suffering: The Relationship Between Mindfulness and Non-suicidal Self-injury
Abstract
Non-suicidal
self-injury is a complex behaviour, disturbingly prevalent, difficult to treat
and with possible adverse outcomes in the long term. Previous research has
shown individuals most commonly self-injure to cope with overwhelming negative
emotions. Mindfulness has been shown to be associated with emotion regulation,
and mindfulness based interventions have shown effectiveness in a wide range of
psychological disorders. This research explored whether lack of mindfulness or
problems in mindfulness are involved in self-injury. A non-clinical sample of
263 participants (17–65 years) completed an online survey measuring
self-injurious behaviours and mindfulness. Differences in levels of mindfulness
between individuals with and without a history of self-injury were
investigated. Analysis of variance indicated mindfulness (overall and in terms
of specific facets ‘Act with Awareness’, ‘Non-judge’ and ‘Non-react’) was
significantly lower in individuals with a history of self-injury compared to those
without. Pairwise comparisons revealed current self-injurers reported
significantly lower mindfulness than past self-injurers and non-self-injurers,
with medium effect sizes of d = 0.51 and d = 0.77, respectively. In logistic
regression, low mindfulness significantly predicted self-injury (B = 0.04, p
< .001). These findings have clinical implications, suggesting that
mindfulness-based interventions may assist individuals to give up self-injurious
behaviours and may be an important part of prevention strategies.
