Abstract
Recent theory suggests that people may engage in dysregulated behaviors, such as non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), as a way to distract from rumination and emotional cascades (Selby et al. 2008); similarly, another theory suggests that people may not engage in self-injurious behavior without habituation to fear through repeated exposure to painful events (Joiner 2005). We hypothesized that both high rumination and habituation to the fear of pain may strongly influence NSSI because those who lack a fear of pain and ruminate intensely will not be afraid to inflict physical pain as a way to distract from negative affect. Participants were undergraduate students (N = 94), a large portion of whom reported engaging in NSSI. These participants were given measures of past painful experiences, rumination, and frequency of recent self-injury. Using hierarchical linear regression, evidence was found to support the interaction effect of rumination and painful/provocative experiences on the frequency of NSSI, even after controlling for important variables such as age, gender, and sensation seeking. Although the interaction significantly predicted NSSI, it did not predict dysregulated eating behaviors or drinking to cope.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anestis, M. D., Selby, E. A., & Joiner, T. E. (2007). The role of urgency in maladaptive behaviors. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 3018–3029.
Armey, M. F., & Crowther, J. H. (2008). A comparison of linear versus non-linear models of aversive self-awareness, dissociation, and non-suicidal self-injury among young adults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76(1), 9–14.
Brown, M. Z., Comtois, K. A., & Linehan, M. M. (2002). Reasons for suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-injury in women with borderline personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111(1), 198–202.
Bushman, B. J., Bonacci, A. M., Pederson, W. C., Vasquez, E. A., & Miller, N. (2005). Chewing on it can chew you up: Effects of rumination on triggered displaced aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 969–983.
Chapman, A. L., Gratz, K. L., & Brown, M. Z. (2006). Solving the puzzle of deliberate self-harm: The experiential avoidance model. Behavior Research Therapy, 44, 371–394.
Cooper, M. L., Russell, M., Skinner, J. B., & Windle, M. (1992). Development and validation of a three-dimensional measure of drinking motives. Psychological Assessment: Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 4, 123–132.
Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A. G., & Buchner, A. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behaviour Research Methods, 39, 175–191.
Garner, D. M., Olmstead, M. P., & Polivy, J. (1983). Development and validation of a multidimensional eating disorder inventory for anorexia nervosa and bulimia. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 2, 15–19.
Gratz, K. L. (2006). Risk factors for deliberate self-harm among female college students: The role and interaction of childhood maltreatment, emotional inexpressivity, and affect intensity/reactivity. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 76(2), 238–250.
Gratz, K. L., Conrad, S. D., & Roemer, L. (2002). Risk factors for deliberate self-harm among college students. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 72(1), 128–140.
Guertin, T., Lloyd-Richardsonm, E., Spirito, A., Donaldson, D., & Boergers, J. (2001). Self-mutilative behavior in adolescents who attempt suicide by overdose. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 1062–1069.
Hilt, L. M., Cha, C. B., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2008). Nonsuicidal self-injury in young adolescent girls: Moderators of distress—function relationship. Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 76(1), 63–71.
Joiner, T. E., Jr. (2005). Why people die by suicide. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kemperman, I., Russ, M. J., Clark, W. C., Kakuma, T., Zanine, E., & Harrison, K. (1997). Pain assessment in self-injurious patients with borderline personality disorder using signal detection theory. Psychiatry Research, 70, 175–183.
Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). New York: Guildford Press.
Klonsky, E. D. (2007). The functions of deliberate self-injury: A review of the evidence. Clinical Psychology Review, 27, 226–239.
Lloyd, E. E., Kelly, M. L., & Hope, T. (1997). Self-mutilation in a community sample of adolescents: Descriptive characteristics and provisional prevalence rates. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the society for Behavioral Medicine. New Orleans, LA.
Moberly, N. J., & Watkins, E. R. (2008). Ruminative self-focus and negative affect: An experience sampling study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117(2), 314–323.
Nock, M. K., Joiner, T. E., Jr., Gordon, K. H., Lloyd-Richardson, E., & Prinstein, M. J. (2006). Non-suicidal self-injury among adolescents: Diagnostic correlates and relation to suicide attempts. Psychiatry Research, 144, 65–72.
Nock, M. K., & Prinstein, M. J. (2004). A functional approach to the assessment of self-mutilative behavior. Journal of Consulting and Counseling Psychology, 72(5), 885–890.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Morrow, J. (1991). A prospective study of depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms after a natural disaster: The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(1), 115–121.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Stice, E., Wade, E., & Bohon, C. (2007). Reciprocal relations between rumination and bulimic, substance abuse, and depressive symptoms in female adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116(1), 198–207.
Romans, S. E., Martin, J. L., Anderson, J. C., Herbinson, P. G., & Mullen, P. E. (1995). Sexual abuse in childhood and deliberate self-harm. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 1336–1342.
Russ, M. J., Roth, S. D., Lerman, A., Kakuma, T., Harrison, K., Shindledecker, R. D., et al. (1992). Pain perception in self-injurious patients with borderline personality disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 32, 501–511.
Selby, E. A., Anestis, M. D., Bender, T. E., & Joiner, T. E., Jr. (2009). An exploration of the emotional cascade model in borderline personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118(2), 375–387.
Selby, E. A., Anestis, M. D., & Joiner, T. E. (2008). Understanding the relationship between emotional and behavioral dysregulation: Emotional cascades. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 593–611.
Selby, E. A., & Joiner, T. E., Jr. (2009). Cascades of emotion: The emergence of borderline personality disorder from emotional and behavioral dysregulation. Review of General Psychology. doi:10.1037/a0015687.
Smyth, J. M., Wonderlich, S. A., Heron, K. E., Sliwinski, M. J., Crosby, R. D., Mitchell, J. E., et al. (2007). Daily and momentary mood and stress are associated with binge eating and vomiting in bulimia nervosa patients in the natural environment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 75(4), 629–638.
Thomsen, D. K. (2006). The association between rumination and negative affect: A review. Cognition and Emotion, 20(8), 1216–1235.
Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27(3), 247–259.
Van Orden, K. A., Witte, T. K., Gordon, K. H., Bender, T. W., & Joiner, T. E., Jr. (2008). Suicidal desire and the capability for suicide: Tests of the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior among adults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70(1), 72–83.
Wallenstein, M. B., & Nock, M. K. (2007). Physical exercise for the treatment of non-suicidal self-injury: Evidence from a single-case study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 350–351.
Weierich, M. R., & Nock, M. K. (2008). Posttraumatic stress symptoms mediate the relation between childhood sexual abuse and non-suicidal self-injury. Journal of Consulting and Counseling Psychology, 76(1), 39–44.
Whiteside, S. P., & Lynam, D. R. (2001). The five-factor model and impulsivity: Using a structural model of personality to understand impulsivity. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 669–689.
Acknowledgments
This study was funded, in part, by National Institute of Mental Health grant F31MH081396 to E. A. Selby, under the sponsorship of T. E. Joiner. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Mental Health or the National Institutes of Health.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Selby, E.A., Connell, L.D. & Joiner, T.E. The Pernicious Blend of Rumination and Fearlessness in Non-Suicidal Self-Injury. Cogn Ther Res 34, 421–428 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-009-9260-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-009-9260-z