Emotion regulation as a mediator of the association between attachment security and skin picking disorder.
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1
Queen Margaret University, Psychology, United Kingdom
Background: Skin picking disorder (SPD), also referred to as excoriation disorder or dermatillomania, is a body-focused repetitive behaviour classified in the DSM-5 under ‘obsessive-compulsive and related disorders’. It is characterised by frequent picking of the skin resulting in tissue damage. This often causes significant impairment to individual wellbeing. Despite estimated 1.5-5.4% prevalence rate and thus constituting potential significant public health concern, awareness of the disorder appears low, with additional limited effectiveness of available treatments. Overall SPD is still poorly understood and under-researched, with the field appearing to be overly focused on symptomatology and with a subsequent neglect of etiology. Nevertheless, despite scant research in this area, one consistently emerging variable is emotion regulation. No study has yet investigated this process in SPD in the context of attachment, a widely recognised pivotal variable in psychopathology and a crucial determinant of emotional regulation strategies an individual develops. Study applied hence a novel perspective.
Objectives: The primary research aim was to investigate whether there is a relationship between SPD and adult attachment style. Furthermore, the study looked whether this relationship is mediated by emotional regulation strategies.
Design: The study used a cross-sectional design. Measures were taken of attachment style, emotion regulation strategies, and skin picking severity through anonymous internet survey.
Methods: 186 adult participants self-identifying as suffering from SPD completed the study. The sample comprised members of private internet groups dedicated to SPD. Participants completed: Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation-Short-Form, and Skin Picking Scale-Revised. The data was analysed using multiple regression and mediation analyses.
Results: The study found that avoidant attachment and maladaptive emotion regulation account for 21% of variance in SPD severity. Moreover, maladaptive self-regulation moderately mediated the relationship between avoidant attachment and skin picking severity.
Conclusions: Introducing developmental framework and demonstrating a novel association between SPD and insecure attachment provides much needed etiology clues, opens new research avenues, and offers support for treatments addressing self-regulation and relational issues such as third wave psychological therapies including ACT and DBT.
Acknowledgements
Dr Vivienne Chisholm, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
Keywords:
Skin picking disorder,
excoriation disorder,
Attachment,
emotion regulation and dysregulation,
Dermatillomania
Conference:
ISAD LONDON 2017: Perspectives on Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Looking to the future, London, United Kingdom, 6 Jul - 7 Jul, 2017.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Other (specify):
Citation:
Isibor
M
(2019). Emotion regulation as a mediator of the association between attachment security and skin picking disorder..
Front. Psychiatry.
Conference Abstract:
ISAD LONDON 2017: Perspectives on Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Looking to the future.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyt.2017.48.00012
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Received:
26 May 2017;
Published Online:
25 Jan 2019.
*
Correspondence:
Mrs. Marta Isibor, Queen Margaret University, Psychology, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, marta.isibor@yahoo.co.uk