Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Jul 6, 2022
Date Accepted: Mar 15, 2023
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Relationship between non-suicidal self-injury and attachment: protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a major concern in the public health arena concerning its prevalence. Factors causing self-injury can be divided into two main categories, namely individual and environmental. Studies addressing self-injury often consider it as an excitement regulation strategy. Studying self-injury within the framework of attachment theory is reasonable since capacities to regulate excitement come into existence in the framework of attachment in the first periods of a child’s growth. Primary studies addressing this topic are not frequent, and no systematic review has been done.
Objective:
We present the systematic review and meta-analysis protocol to explore the relationship between NSSI and attachment.
Methods:
All studies carried out since 1990 on the relationship between NSSI and attachment will be included in this systematic review. We will include observational studies (cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control). Qualitative studies, case studies, case series, and letters to the editor will be excluded. There will be no language limitation. Moreover, there will be no limitations regarding the study participants’ age, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, and psychological problems.
Results:
We will summarize the selection of the eligible studies by a flowchart. The results will be presented in a table of evidence. The results of the meta-analysis will be depicted using diagrams and tables.
Conclusions:
: It seems necessary to carry out such a systematic and comprehensive meta-analysis to present a summary of the published articles in terms of the relationship between NSSI and attachment. The results from this review will be used to improve our knowledge of the role of the upbringing of children and self-injury behavior and will help design appropriate interventions to address NSSI. Clinical Trial: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=226455
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