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Borderline personality disorder and selfharm: Does experiential avoidance play a role?

APA Citation

Chapman , A. L., Specht, M. W., & Cellucci, T. (2005). Borderline personality disorder and selfharm: Does experiential avoidance play a role? Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 35, 388–399.

Publication Topic
Other Third-Wave Therapies: Empirical
Publication Type
Article
Language
English
Abstract

The theory that borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with experiential avoidance, and that experiential avoidance mediates the association between BPD and deliberate, nonsuicidal self-harm was examined. Female inmate participants (N = 105) were given structured diagnostic assessments of BPD, as well as several measures of experiential avoidance. There was a high lifetime prevalence of past self-harm (47.6%). Higher dimensional scores representing BPD severity were associated with higher self-harm frequency and greater experiential avoidance. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that experiential avoidance did not mediate the association between BPD and self-harm, although thought suppression was associated with self-harm frequency.