The Mediation Effect Of Psychological Flexibility On The Relationship Between Cognitive And Emotional Factors And Self-Harm

Objective: Based on the characteristics of self-harm behavior of Chinese college students and the theories of self-harm behavior,the Self-Harm and Function Assessment Scale for College Student were compiled as a good measure tool to investigate the self-harm behavior of Chinese college students.This study intended to investigate the self-harm behavior of college students from the aspects of cognitive and emotional factors(alexithymia and maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation)and psychological flexibility(experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion).This study mainly explored the following issues:(1)To investigate the situation of self-harm behavior of college students;(2)To compare the the differences of cognitive and emotional factors(alexithymia and maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation)and psychological flexibility(experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion)between self-harm group and non self-harm group;(3)To analyze the relationship between cognitive and emotional factors(alexithymia and maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation),psychological flexibility(experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion)and self-harm behavior,and explore that whether psychological flexibility(experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion)exist the mediating effect between cognitive and emotional factors(alexithymia and maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation)and self-harm behavior.Methods: First,convenience sampling was adopt to extract 867 college students and3150 college students from a comprehensive university in Guangdong Province as the subjects from September to December in 2016.On the basis of literature research,semi-structured interviews and open-end questionnaire was used to build the items,using the exploratory factor analysis,confirmatory factor analysis to compile the Self-Harm and Function Assessment Scale of College Student,and then Self-Harm and Function Assessment Scale,Toronto Alexithymia Scale(TAS-20),Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire(CERQ),Acceptance and action questionnaire(AAQ),Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire(CFQ)were used to test.Finally,the SPSS 17.0 and Amos 24.0 was used to analyze data and construct Structural Equation Model to examine the relationship between cognitive and emotional factors,psychological flexibility and self-harm behavior.Result:The Self-Harm and Function Assessment Scale for College Student was divided into two subscales : the Self-Harm Behavior Assessment Subscale(12 items)and the Self-Harm Function Subscale(22 items).The exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis showed that Self-Harm Assessment Subscale containing two dimensions:“mild destructive self-harm”and “strongly destructive self-harm”;Self-Harm Function Subscale containing four dimensions:“emotional management”,“interpersonal influence”,“self satisfaction”,“self punishment”.Tested by reliability and validity,the questionnaire had good content validity,construct validity,criterion-related validity and internal consistency reliability and retest reliability.This study examined the relationship between cognitive and emotional factors,psychological flexibility and self-harm behavior.The results showed that:(1)the incidence rate of self-harm behavior in college students was 16.9%.Most of self-harm students would take more than one way to hurt themselves.Male students scored significantly higher than female students in self-harm behavior;(2)Self-harm group scored significantly higher than non self-harm group in alexithymia and its all dimensions;Self-harm group scored significantly higher than non self-harm group in maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation and its dimensions;Self-harm group scored significantly higher than non self-harm group in experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion;(3)Aexithymia and its all dimensions,maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation and its dimensions,experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion could significantly positively predict self-harm behavior;(4)Alexithymia no only had a direct impact on self-harm behavior but also had a indirect impact on self-harm behavior through experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion;(5)Maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation no only had a direct impact on self-harm behavior but also had a have indirect impact on self-harm behavior through experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion.Conclusion: The Self-Harm and Function Assessment Scale for College Student had good reliability and validity.Apart from this,the theory structure of the questionnaire fit data well.So it is a good measuring tool of self-harm behavior and self-harm function.Cognitive and emotional factors and psychological flexibility affect self-harm,cognitive and emotional factors(alexithymia and maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation)affect self-harm behavior through psychological flexibility(experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion).This studydeeply explored the cognitive and emotional characteristics of self-harm and the inherent mechanism,which not only enrich the theory of self-harm behavior,but also provided a new way to intervene self-harm behavior such as reducing the maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation(eg:disaster,self-blame),improving the recognition and expression of emotions,increasing the psychological flexibility of self-harm,to provide practical and theoretical evidence for prevention and treatment of self-harm.