Shame proneness (i.e., experiencing shame in a trait-like manner) and internalizing shame coping styles (e.g., withdrawing/attacking one’s self when feeling shame) predict distress, psychopathology, and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) among emerging adults. Parental invalidation is instrumental in the development of both maladaptive shame and NSSI. In this study, we proposed that shame proneness and internalized shame coping would link perceived parental invalidation and psychological distress to NSSI functions among emerging adults. A sample of 384 Australian emerging adults with a history of NSSI (M age = 20.7 years, SD = 2.25; 81.3% female, 61.2% Caucasian) completed online self-reports assessing the relevant constructs. Hypothesized indirect effects through shame proneness and internalized shame coping were supported when participants reported using NSSI for intrapersonal (e.g., self-punishment), but not interpersonal (e.g., signaling autonomy), functions. Findings advance theories on why some young people engage in NSSI and implicate perceived parental invalidation and shame as potential clinical targets for NSSI. warranting further research.
AndersonJ. C.GerbingD. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 411–423. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.103.3.411
2.
ArnettJ. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.55.5.469
3.
BaetensI.ClaesL.HaskingP.SmitsD.GrietensH.OnghenaP.MartinG. (2015). The relationship between parental expressed emotions and non-suicidal self-injury: The mediating roles of self-criticism and depression. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24, 491–498. doi:10.1007/s10826-013-9861-8
4.
BarrettK. C. (1995). A functionalist approach to shame and guilt. In TangneyJ. P.FischerK. W. (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions: The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 25–63). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
5.
BentlerP. M.ChouC. P. (1987). Practical issues in structural modeling. Sociological Methods & Research, 16, 78–117. doi:10.1177/0049124187016001004
6.
BreenA. V.LewisS. P.SutherlandO. (2013). Brief report: Non-suicidal self-injury in the context of self and identity development. Journal of Adult Development, 20, 57–62. doi:10.1007/s10804-013-9156-8
7.
BresinK.SchoenleberM. (2015). Gender differences in the prevalence of nonsuicidal self-injury: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 38, 55–64. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2015.02.009
8.
ByrneB. M. (1998). Structural equation modeling with LISREL, PRELIS and SIMPLIS: Basic concepts, applications and programming. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
9.
CarverC. S.Connor-SmithJ. (2010). Personality and coping. Annual Review of Psychology, 61(1), 679–704. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100352
10.
ClaesL.LuyckxK.BijttebierP. (2014). Non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents: Prevalence and associations with identity formation above and beyond depression. Personality and Individual Differences, 61–62, 101–104. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2013.12.019
11.
CurranP. J.WestS. G.FinchJ. F. (1996). The robustness of test statistics to nonnormality and specification error in confirmatory factor analysis. Psychological Methods, 1, 16–29. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.1.1.16
12.
DensonT. F.CreswellJ. D.Granville-SmithI. (2012). Self-focus and social evaluative threat increase salivary cortisol responses to acute stress in men. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 35, 624–633. doi:10.1007/s10865-011-9393-x
13.
DickersonS. S.MycekP. J.ZaldivarF. (2008). Negative social evaluation, but not mere social presence, elicits cortisol responses to a laboratory stressor task. Health Psychology, 27, 116–121. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.27.1.116
14.
ElisonJ.LennonR.PulosS. (2006). Investigating the compass of shame: The development of the Compass of Shame Scale. Social Behavior and Personality, 34, 221–238. doi:10.2224/sbp.2006.34.3.221
15.
ElisonJ.PulosS.LennonR. (2006). Shame-focused coping: An empirical study of the compass of shame. Social Behavior and Personality, 34, 161–168. doi:10.2224/sbp.2006.34.2.161
16.
FieldA. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
17.
FloraD. B.CurranP. J. (2004). An empirical evaluation of alternative methods of estimation for confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal data. Psychological Methods, 9, 466–491. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.9.4.466
18.
GilbertP.ProcterS. (2006). Compassionate mind training for people with high shame and self-criticism: Overview and pilot study of a group therapy approach. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 13, 353–379. doi:10.1002/cpp.507
19.
GilettaM.PrinsteinM. J.AbelaJ. R.GibbB. E.BarrocasA. L.HankinB. L. (2015). Trajectories of suicide ideation and nonsuicidal self-injury among adolescents in mainland China: Peer predictors, joint development, and risk for suicide attempts. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83, 265–279. doi:10.1037/a0038652
20.
GlassmanL. H.WeierichM. R.HooleyJ.DelibertoT. L.NockM. K. (2007). Child maltreatment, non-suicidal self-injury, and the mediating role of self-criticism. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 2483–2490. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2007.04.002
21.
GratzK. L.TullM. T.LevyR. (2014). Randomized controlled trial and uncontrolled 9-month follow-up of an adjunctive emotion regulation group therapy for deliberate self-harm among women with borderline personality disorder. Psychological Medicine, 44, 2099–2112. doi:10.1017/s0033291713002134
22.
GroschwitzR. C.PlenerP. L.KaessM.SchumacherT.StoehrR.BoegeI. (2015). The situation of former adolescent self-injurers as young adults: A follow-up study. BMC Psychiatry, 15, 1–9. doi:10.1186/s12888-015-0555 -1
23.
HamzaC. A.StewartS. L.WilloughbyT. (2012). Examining the link between nonsuicidal self-injury and suicidal behavior: A review of the literature and an integrated model. Clinical Psychology Review, 32, 482–495. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2012.05.003
24.
HooleyJ.St. GermainS. A. (2014). Nonsuicidal self-injury, pain, and self-criticism: Does changing self-worth change pain endurance in people who engage in self-injury?Clinical Psychological Science, 2, 297–305. doi:10.1177/2167702613509372
25.
HooleyJ.HoD.SlaterJ.LockshinA. (2010). Pain perception and nonsuicidal self-injury: A laboratory investigation. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 1, 170–179. doi:10.1037/a0020106
26.
HuL. T.BentlerP. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6, 1–55. doi:10.1080/10705519909540118
27.
KaessM.ParzerP.MatternM.PlenerP. L.BifulcoA.ReschF.BrunnerR. (2013). Adverse childhood experiences and their impact on frequency, severity, and the individual function of nonsuicidal self-injury in youth. Psychiatry Research, 206, 265–272. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2012.10.012
28.
KemenyM. E.GruenewaldT. L.DickersonS. S. (2004). Shame as the emotional response to threat to the social self: Implications for behavior, physiology, and health. Psychological Inquiry, 15, 153–160. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli1502_02
29.
KesslerR. C.AndrewsG.ColpeL. J.HiripiE.MroczekD. K.NormandS. L.…ZaslavskyA. M. (2002). Short screening scales to monitor population prevalences and trends in nonspecific psychological distress. Psychological Medicine, 32, 959–976. doi:10.1017/S0033291702006074
30.
KlineR. B. (2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
31.
KlonskyE. D.GlennC. R. (2009). Assessing the functions of non-suicidal self-injury: Psychometric properties of the Inventory of Statements About Self-injury (ISAS). Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 31, 215–219. doi:10.1007/s10862-008-9107-z
32.
KlonskyE. D.GlennC. R.StyerD. M.OlinoT. M.WashburnJ. J. (2015). The functions of nonsuicidal self-injury: Converging evidence for a two-factor structure. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 9, 1–9. doi:10.1186/s13034-015-0073-4
33.
KlonskyE. D.OlinoT. M. (2008). Identifying clinically distinct subgroups of self-injurers among young adults: A latent class analysis. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology Special Section: Suicide and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury, 76, 22–27. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.76.1.22
34.
LewisH. B. (1971). Shame and guilt in neurosis (1st ed.). New York, NY: International Universities Press.
35.
LewisS. P.LumleyM. N.GrunbergP. H. (2015). Early maladaptive schemas and non-suicidal self-injury among young adults: A preliminary investigation. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 28, 386–402. doi:10.1080/09515070.2015.1074887
36.
LiangX.YangY. (2014). An evaluation of WLSMV and Bayesian methods for confirmatory factor analysis with categorical indicators. International Journal of Quantitative Research in Education, 2, 17–38. doi:10.1504/IJQRE.2014.060972
37.
LinehanM. M. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral treatment for borderline personality disorder. New York, NY: Guildford Press.
38.
LupisS. B.SabikN. J.WolfJ. M. (2016). Role of shame and body esteem in cortisol stress responses. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 39, 262–275. doi:10.1007/s10865-015-9695-5
39.
MacKinnonD. P.LockwoodC. M.WilliamsJ. (2004). Confidence limits for the indirect effect: Distribution of the product and resampling methods. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39, 99–128. doi:10.1207/s15327906mbr3901_4
40.
MarshH. W.HauK.-T.WenZ. (2004). In search of golden rules: Comment on hypothesis-testing approaches to setting cutoff values for fit indexes and dangers in overgeneralizing Hu and Bentler’s (1999) findings. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 11, 320–341. doi:10.1207/s15328007sem1103_2
41.
MillsR. S. L. (2005). Taking stock of the developmental literature on shame. Developmental Review, 25, 26–63. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2004.08.001
42.
MountfordV.CorstorphineE.TomlinsonS.WallerG. (2007). Development of a measure to assess invalidating childhood environments in the eating disorders. Eating Behaviors, 8, 48–58. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2006.01.003
43.
MurisP.MeestersC. (2014). Small or big in the eyes of the other: On the developmental psychopathology of self-conscious emotions as shame, guilt, and pride. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 17, 19–40. doi:10.1007/s10567-013-0137-z
44.
MuthénL. K.MuthénB. O. (1998–2010). Mplus user’s guide. Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.
45.
NathansonD. L. (1987). The many faces of shame. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
46.
NathansonD. L. (1992). Shame and pride: Affect, sex, and the birth of the self. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
47.
NicolaiK. A.WielgusM. D.MezulisA. (2015). Identifying risk for self-harm: Rumination and negative affectivity in the prospective prediction of nonsuicidal self-injury. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 46, 223–233. doi:10.1111/sltb.12186
48.
NockM. K.PrinsteinM. J.SterbaS. K. (2009). Revealing the form and function of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors: A real-time ecological assessment study among adolescents and young adults. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 816–827. doi:10.1037/a0016948
49.
NyströmM. B.MikkelsenF. (2013). Psychopathy-related personality traits and shame management strategies in adolescents. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 28, 519–537. doi:10.1177/0886260512455512
50.
PiotrowskiK. (2013). Identity in adolescence and emerging adulthood: Relationships with emotional and educational factors. Polish Psychological Bulletin, 44, 266. doi:10.2478/ppb-2013-0030
51.
PlenerP. L.SchumacherT.MunzL.GroschwitzR. C. (2015). The longitudinal course of non-suicidal self-injury and deliberate self-harm: A systematic review of the literature. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 2, 2. doi:10.1186/s40479-014-0024-3
52.
PreacherK. J.HayesA. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879–891. doi:10.3758/BRM.40.3.879
53.
QuirkS. W.WierD.MartinS. M.ChristianA. (2015). The influence of parental rejection on the development of maladaptive schemas, rumination, and motivations for self-injury. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 37, 283–295. doi:10.1007/s10862-014-9453-y
54.
RafaeliE.BernsteinD. O.YoungJ. E. (2011). Schema therapy. New York, NY: Routledge.
55.
RafteryA. E. (1995). Bayesian model selection in social research. Sociological Methodology, 25, 111–163. doi:10.2307/271063
56.
RichmondS.HaskingP.MeaneyR. (2015). Psychological distress and non-suicidal self-injury: The mediating roles of rumination, cognitive reappraisal, and expressive suppression. Archives of Suicide Research, 1–11. doi:10.1080/13811118.2015.1008160
57.
RizviS. L.BrownM. Z.BohusM.LinehanM. M. (2011). The role of shame in the development and treatment of borderline personality disorder. In DearingR. L.TangneyJ. P. (Eds.), Shame in the therapy hour (pp. 237–260). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
58.
RobertsonC. D.KimbrelN. A.Nelson-GrayR. O. (2013). The Invalidating Childhood Environment Scale (ICES): Psychometric properties and relationship to borderline personality symptomatology. Journal of Personality Disorders, 27, 402–410. doi:10.1521/pedi_2012_26_062
59.
SaldiasA.PowerK.GillandersD. T.CampbellC. W.BlakeR. A. (2013). The mediatory role of maladaptive schema modes between parental care and non-suicidal self-injury. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 42, 244–257. doi:10.1080/16506073.2013.781671
60.
SchoenleberM.BerenbaumH.MotlR. (2014). Shame-related functions of and motivations for self-injurious behavior. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, & Treatment, 5, 204–211. doi:10.1037/per0000035
61.
SchulenbergJ. E.SameroffA. J.CicchettiD. (2004). The transition to adulthood as a critical juncture in the course of psychopathology and mental health. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 799–806. doi:10.1017/S0954579404040015
62.
SchwartzS. J.ZamboangaB. L.LuyckxK.MecaA.RitchieR. A. (2013). Identity in emerging adulthood: Reviewing the field and looking forward. Emerging Adulthood, 1, 96–113. doi:10.1177/2167696813479781
63.
SladeT.GroveR.BurgessP. (2011). Kessler psychological distress scale: Normative data from the 2007 Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45, 308–316. doi:10.3109/00048674.2010.543653
64.
SwannellS.MartinG.PageA.HaskingP.St. JohnN. (2014). Prevalence of nonsuicidal self-injury in nonclinical samples: Systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 44, 273–303. doi:10.1111/sltb.12070
65.
TabachnickB. G.FidellL. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson International Ed.
66.
TangneyJ. P.DearingR. L.WagnerP. E.GramzowR. (2000). The Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA-3). Fairfax, VA: George Mason University.
67.
TeyberE.McClureF. H.WeathersR. (2011). Shame in families: Transmission across generations. In DearingR. L.TangneyJ. P. (Eds.), Shame in the therapy hour (pp. 137–166). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
68.
TracyJ. L.RobinsR. W.TangneyJ. P. (2007). The self-conscious emotions: Theory and research. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
69.
TreebyM.BrunoR. (2012). Shame and guilt-proneness: Divergent implications for problematic alcohol use and drinking to cope with anxiety and depression symptomatology. Personality and Individual Differences, 53, 613–617. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.05.011
70.
VanDerheiS.RojahnJ.StuewigJ.McKnightP. E. (2014). The effect of shame-proneness, guilt-proneness, and internalizing tendencies on nonsuicidal self-injury. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 44, 317–330. doi:10.1111/sltb.12069
71.
WedigM. M.NockM. K. (2007). Parental expressed emotion and adolescent self-injury. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 46, 1171–1178. doi:10.1097/chi.0b013e3180ca9aaf
72.
WestS. G.TaylorA. B.WuW. (2012). Model fit and model selection in structural equation modeling. In HoyleR. (Ed.), Handbook of structural equation modeling (pp. 209–231). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
73.
YatesT. M. (2004). The developmental psychopathology of self-injurious behavior: Compensatory regulation in posttraumatic adaptation. Clinical Psychology Review, 24, 35–74. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2003.10.001
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
