Childhood Trauma and Self-harm in Adults with Clinical Depression and Non-Clinical Controls

Abstract

This paper undertook a comparative investigation of childhood trauma and self-harm in adults with clinical depression and non-clinical controls. It was hypothesized that a) there would be a significant positive relationship between childhood trauma and self-harm across the study sample and that b) there would be significant gender differences in both childhood trauma and self-harm in adults with clinical depression and non-clinical controls. Through a non-probability purposive sampling, 100 adults (with n = 50 each with clinical depression and non-clinical controls) with an age range of 18-65 years were recruited. All participants responded to a Sociodemographic Information Sheet, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (Bernstein et al., 1994) and the Inventory of Statements about Self-injury (Klonsky & Glenn, 2008) were used for data collection. Results indicated a significant positive association between childhood trauma and self-harm only in adults with clinical depression while also concluding no significant gender differences across the study variables. Other than chalking out future research directions for academics, these findings are mainly relevant to professionals working in clinical and counselling settings as they provided valuable insights into the indigenous dynamics of childhood trauma and self-harm across adults with clinical depression and non-clinical controls.