The Mediating Role of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation and Personality Organization in the Relationship between Object Relations and Non-suicidal Self-injury

The aim of the research investigate the mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation and personality organization in the relationship between object relations and non-suicidal self-injury of students. This research was a fundamental and descriptive correlation study. The statistical population consisted of all students of the Islamic Azad University, Mashhad branch in 2022, among them 451 were selected by convenience sampling method. Participants answered the test of object relations-short form (TOR-SF; Barberis et al. 2020), inventory of personality organization (IPO; Igarashi et al. 2009), difficulties in emotion regulation scale short form (DERS-SF; Kaufman et al. 2016) and self-harm inventory (SHI; Sansone et al. 1998). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results showed that the model is a good fit. The direct effect of object relations (P<0.05), difficulties in emotion regulation (P<0.01), and personality organization (P<0.01) on non-suicidal self-injury is not significant. The indirect effect of object relations with the mediation of difficulties in emotion regulation and personality organization on non-suicidal self-injury is significant (P<0.01). The difficulties in emotion regulation and personality organization can play an indirect role in increasing the effects of object relations on non-suicidal self-injury. The use or development of appropriate educational and therapeutic interventions in this field can help reduce non-suicidal self-injury.