Childhood sexual abuse and non-suicidal self-injury: meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND
Many theorists posit that childhood sexual abuse has a central role in the aetiology of self-injurious behaviour. Studies that report statistically significant associations between a history of such abuse and self-injury are cited to support this view.


OBJECTIVE
A meta-analysis was conducted to determine systematically the magnitude of the association between childhood sexual abuse and self-injurious behaviour.


METHODS
Forty-five analyses of the association were identified. Effect sizes were converted to a standard metric and aggregated.


RESULTS
The relationship between childhood sexual abuse and self-injurious behaviour is relatively small (mean weighted aggregate phi=0.23). This figure may be inflated owing to publication bias. In studies that statistically controlled for psychiatric risk factors, childhood sexual abuse explained little or no unique variance in self-injurious behaviour.


CONCLUSIONS
Theories that childhood sexual abuse has a central or causal role in the development of self-injurious behaviour are not supported by the available empirical evidence. Instead, it appears that the two are modestly related because they are correlated with the same psychiatric risk factors.
Klonsky
E David
ED
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-2500, USA. E.David.Klonsky@stonybrook.edu
Moyer
Anne
A
D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000209:etiology*; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology*