Prediction of Self-Harming Behaviours Based on The Emotion Regulation Difficulty and Intolerance of Uncertainty In Students

Introduction: The present study was conducted to predict self-injurious behaviour based on the emotional regulation difficulty and intolerance of uncertainty in female second-grade high school students. Research method: The research method was a descriptive-correlation type. The statistical population of the present study included all the students of the second secondary school in the 4th district of Alborz province in the academic year of 2021-2022, and 200 of them were selected by the available sampling method of 2 schools. The instrument of the current research is the Self-Harm Inventory by Sansone et al. (1998); the Emotion Regulation Difficulty Scale by Gratz & Roemer (2004) and the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale by Foreston et al. (1994). The hierarchical multivariate regression method was used for data analysis. Results: The results of the present study showed that intolerance of uncertainty and among the components of emotion regulation difficulties, non-acceptance of emotional responses, difficulty in performing purposeful behaviour, lack of emotional awareness and lack of emotional clarity, predicted self-harming behaviour positively and at a significance level of 0.01 in students. Conclusion: Based on the results of this research, educational programs should be considered to promote and improve students' emotion regulation and tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty.