The mediating and moderating effects of emotional dysregulation and left-behind experiences for college freshmen's self-injurious behavior

Objective To explore the mediating effect of emotional dysregulation and moderating effect of left-behind experiences on depression and self-injurious behavior. Methods From April to July 2016, 326 college students who have had self-injurious behaviors and left-behind experiences were selected by cluster sampling method. Investigations were conducted using self-injury scale for the adolescent, self-rating depression scale and emotional dysregulation scale. Results The mediating effect of emotional dysregulation was significant on depression and self-injurious behavior, the coefficient of depression scores (X)→emotional dysregulation scores (M) was 0.259 (t=7.642, P<0.001); the coefficient of M→self-injurious behavior scores (Y) was 0.092 (t=2.653, P=0.008). The direct moderating effect of left-behind experience was significant on depression and self-injurious behavior,the coefficient of X*left-behind experience (W)→Y was 0.133 (t=3.954, P<0.001). The moderating effect of left-behind experience on emotional dysregulation was also significant, the coefficient of X*W→M was 0.071 (t=5.017, P<0.001); the coefficient of M*W→Y was 0.124 (t=3.510, P<0.001). Conclusions Emotional dysregulation plays a mediating role and the left-behind experience serves as a moderating role between depression and self-injurious behavior.