Self-harm, Emotion Regulation, and Experiential Avoidance: A Systematic Review.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychopathology

Background:

• Self-harm is a significant clinical concern, often linked to difficulties in managing emotional distress.
• Emotion regulation and experiential avoidance are proposed psychological mechanisms underlying various mental health conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review existing literature on the relationship between emotion regulation, experiential avoidance, and self-harm.
• To identify gaps in current research and guide future investigations.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search across multiple databases.
• Inclusion of studies using keywords related to emotion regulation, experiential avoidance, and self-harm (including self-injury) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
• Review and synthesis of 17 identified articles.

Main Results:

• Preliminary evidence supports a role for experiential avoidance in self-harm.
• Poor emotion regulation is frequently identified as a contributing factor to self-harm.
• Some studies describe behaviors consistent with experiential avoidance without explicitly using the term.

Conclusions:

• Experiential avoidance and emotion dysregulation appear to be relevant factors in self-harm.
• The current literature has identified several gaps requiring further empirical investigation.
• More research is needed to clarify the precise mechanisms linking these constructs to self-harm behaviors.