Emotion dysregulation is present in many personality disorders. Emotion dysregulation is not just explained by heightened symptoms and interpersonal problems in personality disorders. Emotion dysregulation could be considered a treatment target in personality disorders other than borderline.
The relation between attachment styles and emotion regulation is well documented, and emotion\ud
dysregulation is considered characteristic of individuals with insecure attachment styles. Although\ud
gender differences in emotion regulation have often been reported, it is not clear whether the\ud
association between attachment styles and aspects of emotion dysregulation may vary across\ud
gender. A sample of 229 newlywed couples completed the Experiences in Close Relationship–\ud
Revised scale and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. First, we confirmed previous\ud
evidence on the association between attachment insecurities and emotion dysregulation. Indeed,\ud
attachment anxiety and avoidance were both related to emotional nonacceptance and lack of\ud
emotional clarity. Moreover, attachment anxiety was associated with difficulties in impulse control\ud
and limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies, whereas attachment avoidance was\ud
uniquely related to lack of emotional awareness. Finally, gender was found to moderate the\ud
association that both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance had with difficulties in pursuing\ud
desired goals when experiencing negative emotions. Specifically, among women (but not men),\ud
attachment anxiety was associated with greater difficulties in engaging in goal-directed behavior\ud
when distressed. Conversely, the association between attachment avoidance and difficulties in\ud
pursuing desired goals when distressed was positive for men and negative for women
Although individuals with psychopathic traits are deemed as immune to emotional experiences, in recent year, some authors have advanced the hypothesis that a pervasive pattern of emotion dysregulation may characterize the developmental trajectories leading to a psychopathic personality structure. Shame has been proposed as crucial emotions to understand psychopathy. It has been argued that people, who often experience shame feelings during their childhood, may develop adaptive strategies to cope with them, which lead to maladaptive strategies to regulate shame feelings in adulthood. These maladaptive strategies may explain the increased likelihood for these individuals to violence when feeling ashamed. Whether these mechanisms may also explain the presence of high psychopathic traits remains a clinically valid theoretical hypothesis, which lacks empirical support.ObjectiveTo investigate whether maladaptive strategies to cope with shame feelings were associated with psychopathic traits.AimsTo examine the association between four maladaptive shame coping were positively related with psychopathic traits.MethodsA sample of male offenders incarcerated in Italian jails completed the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (Paulhus et al., 2015) and the Compass of Shame Scale (Elison et al., 2006).ResultsAs hypothesized, maladaptive shame regulation strategies did predict psychopathic traits in the offender sample examined. Specifically, significant and meaningful associations occurred between avoidance and attack other coping styles and psychopathic traits.ConclusionsThe present study is among the first in providing evidence of a possible relationship between maladaptive strategies to cope with shame feelings and psychopathic traits, and such link can be informative to tailor treatment programs for these hard-to-treat patients.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
IntroductionSelf-harm typically occurs in adolescence and has been conceptualized as a dysfunctional strategy to regulate intense negative emotions. Furthermore, empirical literature outlines that self-harmers are more prone to have an insecure attachment style. Moreover, the link between quality of attachment and capacity to regulate emotions has been theoretically and empirically supported.ObjectiveTo examine the associations between attachment style, self-harm behaviors and emotion dysregulation among a sample of adolescents. The sample consisted of 740 adolescents aged between 13 and 19 years (mean age = 16.70, SD = 0.91).AimsTo explore the nature of different pathways by which insecure attachment leads to self-harm behaviors.ResultsAs expected, insecure attachment and emotion dysregulation were positively associated with self-harm behaviors. Moreover, emotion dysregulation mediated the link between attachment styles and self-harm. Specific pathways between types of insecure attachment dimension of emotion dysregulation and self-harm behaviors emerged.ConclusionsSuch results confirm the theorization of self-harm behaviors as a dysfunctional strategy to regulate emotions. Moreover, such emotion dysregulation in self-harmers seem to be connected to insecure attachment. Depending on the subtype of insecure attachment, specific dimensions of emotion dysregulation seem to be involved in self-harm behavior, suggesting interesting clinical implications.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
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