Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 7, 2026
Rapid Fractionation and Isolation of Whole Blood Components in Samples Obtained from a Community-based Setting
Published on: November 30, 2015
Childhood sexual abuse and non-suicidal self-injury: meta-analysis
1Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-2500, USA. E.David.Klonsky@stonybrook.edu
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.
Aims:
A meta-analysis was conducted to determine systematically the magnitude of the association between childhood sexual abuse and self-injurious behaviour.
Method:
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.
