Assessment of relationship between negative emotion and non-suicidal self-injury behavior: with emphasis on the mediator role of body image and emotion regulation among soldiers

Given the role of factors such as negative emotion and body image in non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors, the main objective of this study was to investigate the mediator role of body image and regulation of emotion in relationship between negative emotion (depression and hopelessness) and non-suicidal self- injury among soldiers.
The method of present study was a structural equation model. For this reason, a number of 302 soldiers were selected using random sampling method from soldiers referred to a army hospital in 2014 – 2015. The tools used in this study included Short Form of the Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Hopelessness Scale, Body Investment Scale, Gouritz’s Self-Injury Behavior Inventory, and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire. The data were analyzed using statistical mediation analysis and also using SPSS Amos (version 22) software package, and finally the most graceful model was selected.
There was a significant relationship between negative emotion and self-injury, so that negative strategies of emotion regulation and negative perceptions from body image had a role mediator between self-injury and negative emotion. Also, it was shown that self-injury has a negative relationship with the level of education and age, while it has an inverse relationship with addiction.
According to the results of present study, it can be concluded that persons with negative emotion, who have used regulation strategies of negative emotion and have more negative perception towards their bodies were more prone to self-injury.