The short answer is yes, there are studies, research, articles, and
books linking self-injury to coping mechanisms, although you have to
synthesize some of the discussions to understand that they are linking
the two. In other words, most of the reports and studies list multiple
causes and multiple consequences and some use various terms other than
"secure attachment". Since you appear to be a lay person rather than a
psychologist, I will stick to the more accessible information. Most of
the papers speak in terms of self-esteem or separation anxiety or poor
attachment, as well as physical, verbal, and emotional abuse being
linked to severe psychological problems and include self-harm as one
of the consequences but they don’t link them exclusively in a straight
cause-and-effect relationship. It’s pretty clear however, that
attachment problems and self-harm or self-injury are related but
self-harm isn’t the only result, nor is it a necessary consequence.
In other words, self-harm is just one of the possible outcomes, but it
appears to be a widely accepted consequence.
Other studies, as well as guidelines for custodial care emphasize the
dangers of separating the children from families, school, and personal
attachments and indicate that one possible consequence is self-harm
behavior.
A good place to start is with the SIARI (Self-injury And Related
Issues) site maintained by U.K.-based author and counselor Jan Sutton.
http://www.self-injury-abuse-trauma-directory.info/Completed%20Files/Self-Injury-Link-Index.htm
this site has a large number of links on the subject.
For adolescent behavior, begin with this page:
http://www.self-injury-abuse-trauma-directory.info/Completed%20Files/Self-injury_and_self-harm_links_adolescents_and_children.htm
A fact sheet from the Royal college of Psychiatrists is located at:
http://www.self-injury-abuse-trauma-directory.info/Completed%20Files/Self-injury_and_self-harm_links_adolescents_and_children.htm
This paper begins with the warning that self-harm “is always a sign of
something being seriously wrong.” The problem, according to the Royal
College, is sex-based with girls (their term) having the problem in a
seven-to-one ratio over boys.
Section 1.23 of The Mental Needs of looked After Children
(http://www.youngminds.org.uk/pdf%20files/Evidence%20base%20for%20LAC.pdf),
States “A significant number of severe problems in childhood, if not
adequately treated, lead to lifelong mental illness in adulthood.
Strong links have been
established between mental health problems in children and young
people and many issues of growing public concern, such as juvenile
crime, alcohol and drug misuse, self-harm, and eating disorders.“
Elsewhere the paper says, “Secure attachment: Secure attachment is
associated with the development of good social skills and the capacity
to trust and to learn. Children who have secure attachments are likely
to have a more confident sense of themselves and a sense of optimism
about the world.”
Another study, The Effect Of Detention Centres On The Health Of
Children (http://www.mapw.au.nu/refugees/02mapw-child-detention-policy.html),
states that for children, disruptions of attachment relationships
cause severe stress
and produce behavioural disturbance. It warns that children held in
detention centers who experience additional attachment disruption are
more likely to be self-destructive.
Self-harm being a “common manifestations of disorganized attachment in
women” is a quote from a paper presenting attachment theory as an
approach to understanding severe personality disorders, “Attachment
and Borderline Personality Disorder, A Theory and Some Evidence by
Peter Fonagy, PhD, FBA, Mary Target, PhD and George Gergely, PhD”
www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/psychoanalysis/ zipped/michigan1.rtf
(same in HTML format)
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:M1RXw1kqxugC:www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/psychoanalysis/zipped/michigan1.rtf++self-harm+linked+to+secure+attachment&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
According to Adolescent and youth health: a web of causal connections
(http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/nphp/scopeyth/partc.htm), “Low levels of
‘attachment’ or ‘connection’ to family and school have received much
attention in the recent National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent
Health in the United States where parent-child connectedness and
school-connectedness were associated with every health outcome”
Resnick MD, Bearman PS, Blum RW. Protecting adolescents from harm:
findings from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health.
JAMA 1997;278:823–32.
A 1991 study by Van der Kolk, Perry, and Herman
(http://www.palace.net/~llama/psych/cause.html) linked emotional
neglect, abuse, and chaotic family conditions with self-harm. There
are a number of other related studies listed at the Palace.net site.
Search Terms:
psychology self-harm
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=psychology+self%2Dharm
and
self-harm linked to secure attachment
://www.google.com/search?q=+self-harm+linked+to+secure+attachment&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&newwindow=1&safe=off
Other resources:
http://www.self-injury-abuse-trauma-directory.info/
In Troubled Teens: Fact Sheets for Parents
(http://depression.about.com/library/weekly/aa010201.htm?terms=self-injury),
you will find links to more resources
An FAQ is located at:
http://depression.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.palace.net%2F%7Ellama%2Fpsych%2Fintro.html
The best list of articles is at:
http://www.palace.net/~llama/psych/cause.html
I hope this provides enough information to answer your question. Most
of the studies are available in medical libraries but are not
available online. Of course there are numerous other theories
concerning the etiology of about self-harm, including chemical
imbalances, operant conditioning, and so forth but there are many
which attempt to connect it with poor attachment. |
