Prediction of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury based on Attachment Styles in High School Female Students

Background and Objective: The increase in self-injurious behaviors is a concern about adolescents and is related to people’s attachment styles. The present study used the descriptive-correlation method to predict self-harm based on attachment styles with the mediating role of emotion dysregulation in high school female students. Methods: The statistical population of this study included all the female high school students in autumn and winter 2022-2023 in Pasargad City, Fars province, of which 337 students aged 13 to 18 years participated in the convenience sampling. In this research, three questionnaires were used including the self-harm Inventory (SHI), the attachment scale of Collins and Read (1990), and the difficulty in emotion regulation scale (DERS). Data analysis was conducted in SPSS-24 and Amos-24 software with Pearson correlation coefficient and bootstrap statistical tests. Findings: The findings showed that there was a significant correlation between attachment styles and self-harm, difficulty in emotion regulation and self-harm, and finally between attachment styles and emotion dysregulation at the 0.01 level. The chi-squared value was significant with 56.29 at the 0.001 level. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that emotion dysregulation played a mediating role between attachment styles (secure and avoidant) and self-harm, and their path coefficient was negative, and the anxious attachment style had a positive effect on self-harm due to the difficulty in emotion regulation.