Emotion dysregulation and impulsivity additively predict borderline personality disorder features in Italian nonclinical adolescents

Abstract

The present study aimed to test if measures of emotion dysregulation and impulsivity additively predicted dimensional scores of borderline personality disorder assessed using the Borderline Personality Disorder Scale of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ in two independent samples of Italian nonclinical adolescents. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that three dimensions of emotion dysregulation (difficulties controlling impulsive behaviours when distressed, limited access to effective emotional regulation strategies and lack of emotional clarity) were significantly associated with BPD features in both samples. Further, impulsivity scores accounted for a significant amount of additional variance in BPD features above and beyond emotion dysregulation.

Personality styles in a non-clinical sample: The role of emotion dysregulation and impulsivity

“…Cronbach's alphas of the six DERS dimensions showed a good internal consistency for five of the six scale, with an almost adequate coefficient for Awareness (consistent with recent research conducted with the Italian version of the DERS; Fossati, Gratz, Maffei, & Borroni, 2013). Both the BIS-11 total score and the MCMI-III scales showed good internal consistency.…”

“…As a whole, our findings seemed to support the centrality of both mentalization and emotion regulation to personality functioning (Allen & Fonagy, 2006;Fossati et al, 2013;Velotti, Zavattini, & Garofalo, 2013). Indeed, difficulties in the mental representation of emotions, as well as the inability to effectively regulate emotional arousal were uniquely associated with PD styles examined in the current study.…”

Clinical and psychosocial outcomes of borderline personality disorder in childhood and adolescence: a systematic review

“…prediction of a disorder by a different disorder) continuity (Crowell et al 2009), there are probably three groups of youngsters with borderline pathology. An important area of future research will be a deeper understanding of the determinants of persistence of borderline psychopathology over time (Fossati et al 2013). they remain unwell but mental health problems evolve into a different diagnosis (Mattanah et al 1995).…”

Emotionserleben, Emotionsregulation und strukturelle Störung bei Jugendlichen

“…Ein vergleichbares Ergebnis wurde bei alexithymen Jugendliche gefunden (Venta et al 2012). Zusammengenommen klärten Impulsivität und emotionale Dysregulation mehr als ein Drittel der Varianz von Borderline-Merkmalen in einer nichtklinischen jugendlichen Stichprobe auf (Fossati et al 2013). Schwierigkeiten in der Emotionsregulation stellten auch im Rahmen nichtsuizidaler Selbstverletzungen ein Kernproblem dar (In-Albon et al 2015;Voon et al 2014aVoon et al , 2014b.…”