Relation of Non-Suicidal Self-Harm to Emotion Regulation and Alexithymia in Sexually Abused Children and Adolescents

Child sexual abuse is a global issue affecting children. It burdens the entire society physically and mentally. It can cause eating disorders and non-suicidal self-injury in abused people (NSSI). Emotion regulation (ER) is an important etiological link between purging, NSSI, and abusive experiences. We interviewed 80 people, ranged in age from 13 to 20, of whom 62.5% had CSA, versus 30 healthy controls. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale, an eating disorders clinical interview, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) to assess emotion dysregulation, the Self-punishment Scale to assess NSSI, the Mini-Kid for children under the age of 18, and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID I) for those aged 18 and older were given to victims. CSA was found in 62.5% of the participants. Emotional dysregulation was strongly linked to CSA. Descriptive and identifying difficulties in feelings and externally oriented thinking (p0.001, p0.03, p0.001) were found to be associated with the development of alexithymia. CSA participants had higher NSSI than controls, with 28% having severe self-punishment symptoms (P0.001). Finally, CSA is common in kids and teens. It has negative effects on future generations' mental and physical health. All of these conditions can lead to alexithymia.