Childhood maltreatment and self-hatred as distinguishing characteristics of psychiatric patients with self-harm: A comparison with clinical and healthy controls

Abstract

Introduction: Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is common in clinical populations. Childhood maltreatment (CM) and attitudes both towards oneself and towards DSH may be of importance for the development of DSH. This study aimed to test whether patients with DSH report more CM, more negative attitudes towards oneself and more positive attitudes towards DSH than a clinical and a healthy comparison group, and whether the effects of CM are mediated by negative attitudes towards oneself.

Method: Females with DSH and psychiatric disorders (n = 34), females without DSH but with psychiatric disorders (n = 31) and healthy female individuals (n = 29) were compared regarding DSH, CM, attitudes towards the self and attitudes towards self-harm.

Results: Females with DSH reported more emotional abuse and more self-hatred as compared to both comparison groups. The effect of emotional abuse was mediated by self-hatred. The DSH-group had significantly more positive attitudes towards DSH than the healthy comparison group.

Conclusion: Self-hatred and CM in the form of emotional abuse may be distinguishing characteristics of female patients with DSH in psychiatric settings. The present results are compatible with the hypothesis that emotional abuse leads to DSH via self-hatred, but the cross-sectional nature of the study precludes any causal conclusions. The clinical utility of the results is discussed.

Keywords: attitudes; childhood maltreatment (CM); deliberate self-harm (DSH); non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI); self-concept.