The self-harm inventory (SHI): Development of a scale for identifying self-destructive behaviors and borderline personality disorder

Abstract

Intentional self-harm behavior is an important clinical phenomenon that appears highly related to borderline personality disorder (BPD). Self-harm behavior in the context of borderline personality probably exists along a continuum from graphic, self-harm behavior to milder forms of self-sabotaging behavior that might be viewed as self-defeating Relatively little attention has been paid to developing a self-report measure of intentional self-harm, particularly as a screening device for detecting BPD. In Study 1, an initial list of self-harm behaviors encountered in clinical practice was narrowed to those behaviors related to BPD in a sample comprised of adults from both a mental health and non-mental health setting. All participants (N = 221) underwent a semistructured diagnostic interview for BPD. Using a cut-off score of 5 on the resulting 22-item Self-Harm Inventory (SHI), 83.7% of research participants were correctly classified as having BPD or not. In Study 2, women (N = 285) sampled from an outpatient medical setting completed the SHI and a widely used self-report measure of BPD. The SHI cut-off score resulted in correct classification of 87.9% of the individuals. In Study 3, using a sample of adults involuntarily hospitalized for psychiatric reasons (N = 32), the SHI performed at least as well as another self-report measure of BPD in diagnosing participants (the final diagnosis was based on a semistructured interview). The results are discussed with regard to potential advantages and utility of the SHI and need for further validation.

Bullying and Victimization, Depressive Mood, and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Parental Support

“…To assess the presence of different types of NSSI behaviors, adolescents completed the Self-Harm Inventory (SHI; Sansone et al 1998), which consists of 22 yes/no items inquiring whether the participant had ever intentionally engaged in the specified behavior (e.g., cutting). In the present study only the NSSI subscale (cutting, burning, hitting, scratching and head-banging) was used and we added that these behaviors needed to be engaged in without suicidal intent, with a Cronbach's alpha of .66.…”

Mapping non suicidal self-injury in adolescence: Development and confirmatory factor analysis of the Impulse, Self-harm and Suicide Ideation Questionnaire for Adolescents (ISSIQ-A)

“…To date, several research studies on NSSI in adolescence has been conducted using measures to assess self-harm: FASM (Lloyd et al, 1997); SHI (Sansone et al, 1998); DSHI (Gratz, 2001) and DSHI-S (Lundh et al, 2007); SITBI (Nock et al, 2007); ISAS (Klonsky, 2009); RSHIA (Vrouva et al, 2010). However, many were developed and validated in clinical and non-clinical adult samples, and the psychometric properties of the adapted versions to youths were not thoroughly explored prior to administration in research with adolescent samples.…”

Striving and Competing and its Relationship to Self-Harm in Young Adults

“…The Self-Harm Inventory (SHI) was developed by Sansone, Wiederman and Sansone (1998). It is a 22-item self-report questionnaire measuring an individual's history of self-harm behaviours.…”

“…Although according to Sansone et al, (1998) alpha coefficients are not applicable to this scale, in this study the scale had good reliability (see Table 1). …”