Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, USA.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2021 May;49(5):683-695. doi: 10.1007/s10802-020-00758-w. Epub 2021 Feb 1.
Non-suicidal self injury (NSSI) is a transdiagnostic maladaptive behavior that is highly prevalent in adolescence. A greater understanding of the mechanisms leading to NSSI is needed to guide the development of prevention efforts. The current study examined the relationship between maternal socialization of emotions and NSSI behaviors in their children. Female adolescents (N = 90, 12-17 years old) who demonstrated a range of NSSI lifetime episodes from none to very frequent were included in this sample. Maternal responses to their children's displays of sadness, anger, and happiness were assessed. Principal components analysis was used to categorize items into supportive and unsupportive maternal emotion socialization responses for the three emotions. Adolescents whose mothers reported less supportive maternal responses to child's expressions of sadness and anger had more lifetime NSSI episodes. Many of these patterns remained when follow-up analyses considered an extreme group approach (e.g., high counts of NSSI versus no NSSI), when analyses focused on specific diagnostic subgroups (e.g., depression and anxiety), and to some extent (socialization of anger) when current NSSI was considered. While the cross-sectional study design prevents causal conclusions, transactional theories raise the possibility that mothers' emotion socialization may impact offspring NSSI and offspring engagement in NSSI may result in mothers altering their socialization practices to accommodate their child's unique needs. Future research should employ longitudinal methodology to examine the time course, consider the role of emotion regulation as an explanatory mechanism, and consider intervention methods that may teach effective emotion socialization for parents.
非自杀性自伤（NSSI）是一种跨诊断的适应不良行为，在青少年中非常普遍。为了指导预防工作的开展，需要更深入地了解导致 NSSI 的机制。本研究探讨了母亲对子女情绪的社会化与 NSSI 行为之间的关系。该样本包括了 90 名女性青少年（年龄在 12-17 岁之间），她们在一生中表现出了从无到频繁的 NSSI 行为。评估了母亲对孩子悲伤、愤怒和快乐表现的反应。主成分分析将项目分为支持性和不支持性的母亲情绪社会化反应，用于三种情绪。母亲对孩子表达悲伤和愤怒的反应不支持，其子女的一生中 NSSI 发作次数就越多。在考虑极端组方法（例如，高频率的 NSSI 与无 NSSI）、考虑特定诊断亚组（例如，抑郁和焦虑）以及在一定程度上（愤怒的社会化）时，当考虑当前的 NSSI 时，许多模式仍然存在。虽然横断面研究设计不能得出因果关系的结论，但交互理论提出了一种可能性，即母亲的情绪社会化可能会影响子女的 NSSI，而子女的 NSSI 行为可能会导致母亲改变他们的社会化实践，以适应孩子的独特需求。未来的研究应采用纵向方法来考察时间进程，考虑情绪调节作为解释机制的作用，并考虑可能教授父母有效情绪社会化的干预方法。
