Family Communication, Cognitive Distortion, and Emotion Regulation as Predictors of Self-Harm Behaviors in Young Adult of Pakistan: A Serial Mediation Analysis

The present study explored the serial mediation approach of cognitive distortion and emotional dysregulation in association between poor family communication and self-harm behaviors (SHBs) in young adults. For this purpose, 263 participants (112 [43%] men and 151 [57%] women) age ranging from 15 to 25 years ( M = 18.16, SD = 2.11) students of 1st to 6th year recruited from public and private institutes (colleges and universities) of Lahore, an urbanized city of Pakistan with the help of multistage stratified sampling technique. Family Communication, a subscale of FACES IV, cognitive distortion scale, difficulty in emotion regulation and SHB scale for young adults were used to measure family communication, cognitive distortion, emotion dysregulation and SHBs respectively. Results concluded that the cognitive distortions and emotional dysregulation partially mediate the association between family communication and SHBs. Further findings are discussed with respect to cultural implication and challenges to young adults along with some recommendations for upcoming studies.