@article{ref1,
title="Adult attachment orientations, depressive symptoms, anger, and self-directed aggression by psychiatric patients",
journal="Cognitive therapy and research",
year="2010",
author="Gormley, B. and McNiel, D.E.",
volume="34",
number="3",
pages="272-281",
abstract="This study applied adult attachment theory to better understand self-directed aggression, defined as suicide attempts and nonsuicidal self-injury, reported by 109 hospitalized psychiatric patients. As expected, patients with higher levels of adult attachment anxiety were more likely to report suicide attempts and self-injury. We tested depressive symptoms and anger as mediators of the relationship between attachment orientations and self-directed aggression. As hypothesized, depressive symptoms partially mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and self-directed aggression, but unexpectedly, anger did not. The results support that levels of depression partially explain the associations between attachment anxiety and self-directed aggression. Subsidiary analyses suggested that patients with higher levels of adult attachment avoidance were more likely to report histories of nonsuicidal self-injury but not suicide attempts. Implications for research and practice are discussed. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0147-5916",
doi="10.1007/s10608-009-9267-5",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10608-009-9267-5"
}