Citation

Klonsky ED, Moyer A. Br. J. Psychiatry 2008; 192(3): 166-170.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-2500, USA. E.David.Klonsky@stonybrook.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Royal College of Psychiatry)

DOI

10.1192/bjp.bp.106.030650

PMID

18310572

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Many theorists posit that childhood sexual abuse has a central role in the aetiology of self-injurious behaviour. Studies that report statistically significant associations between a history of such abuse and self-injury are cited to support this view. AIMS: A meta-analysis was conducted to determine systematically the magnitude of the association between childhood sexual abuse and self-injurious behaviour. METHOD: Forty-five analyses of the association were identified. Effect sizes were converted to a standard metric and aggregated. RESULTS: The relationship between childhood sexual abuse and self-injurious behaviour is relatively small (mean weighted aggregate varphi=0.23). This figure may be inflated owing to publication bias. In studies that statistically controlled for psychiatric risk factors, childhood sexual abuse explained little or no unique variance in self-injurious behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: Theories that childhood sexual abuse has a central or causal role in the development of self-injurious behaviour are not supported by the available empirical evidence. Instead, it appears that the two are modestly related because they are correlated with the same psychiatric risk factors.

Language: en