LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Dealing with difficult days: Functional coping dynamics in self-harm ideation and enactment.

Photo by jareddrice from unsplash

BACKGROUND Self-harm affords people a means of coping. However, little is known about how functional coping dynamics differ between stressful situations in which people self-harm (enactment), think about harming (ideation),… Click to show full abstract

BACKGROUND Self-harm affords people a means of coping. However, little is known about how functional coping dynamics differ between stressful situations in which people self-harm (enactment), think about harming (ideation), or experience no self-harmful thoughts or behaviours. METHODS Participants (N = 1,157) aged 16-49 years (M = 18.21, SD = 3.24) with a recent history of self-harm (past 3 months) reported how they coped in response to their most significant recent stressor (3 months). RESULTS Almost 40% of participants, all of whom had self-harmed in the last 3 months, had no self-harm experience (thoughts or behaviours) in response to their most significant stressor in that time frame. In multivariate analysis, adjusting for symptoms of depression and anxiety, reappraisal coping was predictive of self-harm thoughts. Approach, emotion regulation and reappraisal coping were predictive of self-harm behaviour. Emotion regulation coping differentiated self-harm ideation and enactment groups. LIMITATIONS The cross-sectional design of the study precludes the ability to make inferences regarding causality. Further, there is no agreed definition of 'recent' self-harm. CONCLUSIONS Taken together, the findings suggest that functional coping dynamics may be differentially associated with self-harm ideation and enactment. This is important, given that understanding the transitions between ideation and enactment has been identified as a critical frontier in suicide prevention. Further, results indicate that seemingly innocuous events may have a profound impact as tipping points for enaction; this has implications for clinical practice, including the co-production of safety plans.

Keywords: enactment; ideation enactment; self harm; functional coping

Journal Title: Journal of affective disorders
Year Published: 2017

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.