Internalized Shame as a Mediator Between Emotional Neglect and Self-Harming Behavior
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Objective: This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of internalized shame in the relationship between emotional neglect and self-harming behavior among adolescents and young adults. Methods and Materials: The research employed a descriptive correlational design and was conducted on a sample of 511 participants aged 16 to 25 from Canada, selected based on the Morgan and Krejcie sample size table. Data were collected using the Self-Harm Inventory (SHI), the Emotional Neglect subscale of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire–Short Form (CTQ-SF), and the Internalized Shame Scale (ISS). Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analyses were conducted using SPSS version 27 to examine relationships between variables. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed in AMOS version 21 to test the mediating effect of internalized shame, and model fit indices were evaluated to assess the adequacy of the hypothesized model. Findings: Descriptive statistics showed moderate to high levels of emotional neglect (M = 15.87, SD = 4.21), internalized shame (M = 62.34, SD = 13.76), and self-harming behavior (M = 7.41, SD = 3.19). Pearson correlation analysis revealed significant positive associations between emotional neglect and internalized shame (r = .49, p < .001), emotional neglect and self-harming behavior (r = .41, p < .001), and internalized shame and self-harming behavior (r = .53, p < .001). The SEM results confirmed that internalized shame significantly mediated the relationship between emotional neglect and self-harming behavior (indirect effect: β = .23, p < .001), with the model showing good fit indices (χ²/df = 2.29, CFI = .97, RMSEA = .051). Conclusion: The findings suggest that internalized shame plays a significant mediating role in the pathway from emotional neglect to self-harming behavior, highlighting the importance of addressing shame-related cognitions in preventive and therapeutic interventions for adolescents at risk of self-harm.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.007 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".