title: Borderline personality disorder and deliberate self-harm: does experiential avoidance play a role?
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Simon Fraser University, Department of Psychology, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6 Canada. alex_chapman@msn.com
authors.forename: Alexander L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.forename: Matthew W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Specht
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cellucci
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000150:complications*; D004924:Escape Reaction; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000150:complications*; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires