Lori N. Scott

Prospective associations between features of borderline personality disorder, emotion dysregulation, and aggression

Difficulties with emotion regulation and behavioral instability, including impulsive aggression, are seen as core dimensions underlying borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although both BPD and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) are associated with impulsivity and aggressive behavior, difficulties regulating emotions may be associated uniquely with BPD and may explain distinctive associations between BPD and aggression. This study was designed to examine the unique prospective associations between BPD symptoms at baseline, difficulties with emotion regulation and trait impulsivity, and psychological and physical aggression (both perpetration and victimization) over the course of a year after controlling for ASPD symptoms in a mixed clinical and community sample of adults (N = 150). Results of a multivariate path analysis demonstrated that associations between BPD symptoms at baseline and later psychological and physical aggression were fully mediated by difficulties with emotion regulation. Although BPD symptoms also predicted trait impulsivity, impulsivity did not predict aggression after controlling for emotion dysregulation. ASPD symptoms were directly associated with physical assault perpetration and victimization but were not associated with emotion dysregulation, impulsivity, or psychological aggression. These findings suggest that although both BPD and ASPD are associated with aggressive behaviors, associations between BPD symptoms and aggression are mediated uniquely by difficulties regulating emotions.

Preoccupied Attachment and Emotional Dysregulation: Specific Aspects of Borderline Personality Disorder or General Dimensions of Personality Pathology?

Emotional dysregulation and impaired attachment are seen by many clinical researchers as central aspects of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Alternatively, these constructs may represent general impairments in personality that are nonspecific to BPD. Using multitraitmultimethod models, the authors examined the strength of associations among preoccupied attachment, difficulties with emotion regulation, BPD features, and features of two other personality disorders (i.e., antisocial and avoidant) in a combined psychiatric outpatient and community sample of adults. Results suggested that preoccupied attachment and difficulties with emotion regulation shared strong positive associations with each other and with each of the selected personality disorders. However, preoccupied attachment and emotional dysregulation were more strongly related to BPD features than to features of other personality disorders. Findings suggest that although impairments in relational and emotional domains may underlie personality pathology in general, preoccupied attachment and emotional dysregulation also have specificity for understanding core difficulties in those with BPD.

Reciprocal effects of parenting and borderline personality disorder symptoms in adolescent girls.

Theories of borderline personality disorder (BPD) postulate that high-risk transactions between caregiver and child are important for the development and maintenance of the disorder. Little empirical evidence exists regarding the reciprocal effects of parenting on the development of BPD symptoms in adolescence. The impact of child and caregiver characteristics on this reciprocal relationship is also unknown. Thus, the current study examines bidirectional effects of parenting, specifically harsh punishment practices and caregiver low warmth, and BPD symptoms in girls aged 14-17 years based on annual, longitudinal data from the Pittsburgh Girls Study (N = 2,451) in the context of child and caregiver characteristics. We examined these associations through the use of autoregressive latent trajectory models to differentiate time-specific variations in BPD symptoms and parenting from the stable processes that steadily influence repeated measures within an individual. The developmental trajectories of BPD symptoms and parenting were moderately associated, suggesting a reciprocal relationship. There was some support for time-specific elevations in BPD symptoms predicting subsequent increases in harsh punishment and caregiver low warmth. There was little support for increases in harsh punishment and caregiver low warmth predicting subsequent elevations in BPD symptoms. Child impulsivity and negative affectivity, and caregiver psychopathology were related to parenting trajectories, while only child characteristics predicted BPD trajectories. The results highlight the stability of the reciprocal associations between parenting and BPD trajectories in adolescent girls and add to our understanding of the longitudinal course of BPD in youth.

Clarifying Interpersonal Heterogeneity in Borderline Personality Disorder Using Latent Mixture Modeling

Significant interpersonal impairment is a cardinal feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, past research has demonstrated that the interpersonal profile associated with BPD varies across samples, which is evidence for considerable interpersonal heterogeneity. The current study used inventory of interpersonal problems-circumplex (IIP-C; Alden, Wiggins, & Pincus, 1990) scale scores to investigate interpersonal inhibitions and excesses in a large sample (N = 255) selected for significant borderline pathology. Results indicated that BPD symptom counts were unrelated to the primary dimensions of the IIPC, but were related to generalized interpersonal distress. A latent class analysis clarified this finding by revealing six homogeneous interpersonal classes with prototypical profiles associated with Intrusive, Vindictive, Avoidant, Nonassertive, and moderate and severe Exploitable interpersonal problems. These classes differed in clinically relevant features (e.g., antisocial behaviors, self-injury, past suicide attempts). Findings are discussed in terms of the incremental clinical utility of the interpersonal circumplex model and the implications for developmental and nosological models of BPD.

Non-suicidal self-injury and suicidal ideation as predictors of suicide attempts in adolescent girls: A multi-wave prospective study

Although both suicide ideation (SI) and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) are known risk factors for suicidal behavior, few longitudinal studies have examined whether having a history of one or both of these factors prospectively predicts increased risk for suicide attempts. According to the theory of acquired capability for suicide, engagement in NSSI may reduce inhibitions around self-inflicted violence, imparting greater risk for suicide attempts among those with SI than would be observed in those with SI who do not have a history of NSSI. We used prospective data from the Pittsburgh Girls Study, a large community sample, to compare groups of girls reporting no SI or NSSI, SI only, or both NSSI and SI between early to late adolescence on any lifetime or recent suicide attempts in late adolescence and early adulthood. As compared to girls with no SI or NSSI history and those with only an SI history, girls with a history of both NSSI and SI were significantly more likely to subsequently report both lifetime and recent suicide attempts. Results are consistent with the acquired capability theory for suicide and suggest that adolescent girls who have engaged in NSSI and also report SI represent a particularly high-risk group in need of prevention and intervention efforts.

The challenge of transforming the diagnostic system of personality disorders

While the DSM-5 alternative model of personality disorder (PD) diagnosis allows the field to systematically compare categorical and dimensional classifications, the ICD-11 proposal suggests a radical change by restricting the classification of PDs to one category, deleting all specific types, basing clinical service provision exclusively upon a severity dimension, and restricting trait domains to secondary qualifiers without defining cutoff points. This article reflects broad international agreement about the state of PD diagnosis. It is argued that diagnosis according to the ICD-11 proposal is based on broad, potentially stigmatizing descriptions of impaired functioning and ignores much of the impressive body of research and treatment guidelines that have advanced the care of adults and adolescents with borderline and other PDs. Before radically changing classification, which highly impacts the provision of health care, head-to-head field trials coupled with the views of patients as well as thorough debate among scientists are urgently needed.

Emotion dysregulation as a maintenance factor of borderline personality disorder features

We examined within-individual changes in emotion dysregulation over the course of one year as a maintenance factor of borderline personality disorder (BPD) features. We evaluated the extent to which (1) BPD symptom severity at baseline predicted within-individual changes in emotion dysregulation and (2) within-individual changes in emotion dysregulation predicted four BPD features at 12-month follow-up: affective instability, identity disturbances, negative relationships, and impulsivity. The specificity of emotion dysregulation as a maintaining mechanism of BPD features was examined by controlling for a competing intervening variable, interpersonal conflict. BPD symptoms at baseline predicted overall level and increasing emotion dysregulation. Additionally, increasing emotion dysregulation predicted all four BPD features at 12-month follow-up after controlling for BPD symptoms at baseline. Further, overall level of emotion dysregulation mediated the association between BPD symptom severity at baseline and both affective instability and identity disturbance at 12-month follow-up, consistent with the notion of emotion dysregulation as a maintenance factor. Future research on the malleability of emotion dysregulation in laboratory paradigms and its effects on short-term changes in BPD features is needed to inform interventions.

Attachment and social cognition in borderline personality disorder: Specificity in relation to antisocial and avoidant personality disorders

Theory and research point to the role of attachment difficulties in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Attachment insecurity is believed to lead to chronic problems in social relationships, attributable, in part, to impairments in social cognition, which comprise maladaptive mental representations of self, others, and self in relation to others. However, few studies have attempted to identify social-cognitive mechanisms that link attachment insecurity to BPD and to assess whether such mechanisms are specific to the disorder. For the present study, empirically derived indices of mentalization, self-other boundaries, and identity diffusion were tested as mediators between attachment style and personality disorder symptoms. In a cross-sectional structural equation model, mentalization and self-other boundaries mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and BPD. Mentalization partially mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and antisocial personality disorder (PD) symptoms, and self-other boundaries mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety.

Biobehavioral Reactivity to Social Evaluative Stress in Women With Borderline Personality Disorder

Several clinical theories propose that borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by a biologically based affective vulnerability to intense affective experiences and impaired modulation of affective states, which might manifest in high emotional intensity, hyperreactivity, and impaired recovery to baseline. However, few studies have tested these theories based on emotional and biological responses of BPD participants in response to psychosocial stressors. This study examined cortisol, alpha-amylase, and subjective emotional reactivity to social evaluative stress among women with BPD compared with two healthy female control groups: a trait-matched (TM) group scoring similarly to the BPD group on trait measures of negative affect and impulsivity, and a non-trait-matched (NTM) group. Results generally suggested high emotional intensity and high baseline psychobiological arousal among individuals with BPD, but not emotional hyperreactivity or impaired recovery specific to the stressor. Relative to both control groups, BPD participants had higher baseline and overall subjective negative affect, higher baseline cortisol levels, and attenuated stress-related cortisol reactivity. In addition, both the BPD and TM groups had attenuated alpha-amylase reactivity in comparison to the NTM group. The differences between BPD and TM groups on most of the dependent measures suggest that emotional dysregulation in BPD is not merely an extreme variant of normative personality traits. These results suggest that women with BPD demonstrate intense and chronic negative affectivity along with high resting psychobiological arousal and attenuated psychobiological reactivity specific to laboratory stressors.

Daily Shame and Hostile Irritability in Adolescent Girls With Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms

Recent theoretical and empirical work suggests that adults with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have difficulty regulating both shame and anger, and that these emotions may be functionally related in clinically relevant ways (e.g., Schoenleber & Berenbaum, 2012b). The covariation of shame with anger-related emotions has important clinical implications for interventions targeting shame and uncontrolled anger in BPD. However, no studies have examined shame, anger, and their covariation in adolescents who may be at risk for developing BPD. Therefore, this study focuses on associations between BPD symptoms and patterns of covariation between daily experiences of shame and anger-related affects (i.e., hostile irritability) in a community sample of adolescent girls using ecological momentary assessment. Multilevel models revealed that girls with greater BPD symptoms who reported greater mean levels of shame across the week also tended to report more hostile irritability, even after controlling for guilt. Additionally, examination of within-person variability showed that girls with greater BPD symptoms reported more hostile irritability on occasions when they also reported greater concurrent shame, but this was only the case in girls of average socioeconomic status (i.e., those not receiving public assistance). Unlike shame, guilt was not associated with hostile irritability in girls with greater BPD symptoms. Results suggest that shame may be a key clinical target in the treatment of anger-related difficulties among adolescent girls with BPD symptoms.