First psychometric evaluation of the Mexican Spanish version of the 11‐item BPFSC‐11 and convergence with maladaptive self and interpersonal functioning

Abstract

BackgroundThe Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children (BPFSC‐11) is a well‐used, short, and easy‐to‐administer measure of borderline traits in young people. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Mexican Spanish version of the BPFSC‐11 in a large community‐based sample of Mexican adolescents. In addition, we evaluated the convergence between the borderline construct as measured by the BPFSC‐11 and general personality functioning consistent with more contemporary personality disorder formulations to assess the nomological net of the BPFSC‐11 total score.MethodsA sample of 1212 adolescents (52.6% female, mean age = 15.11, SD = 1.74) were recruited from the community through schools in Mexico City and Michoacán area.ResultsReliability of the BPFSC‐11 was good (α = 0.805; ω = 0.806). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model testing the unidimensional factor structure of the 11 items of the BPFSC‐11 provided good fit (X2[44] = 137.96, p < 0.001; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.04 [90% CI: 0.03, 0.05]; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.96; standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.03). Both configural and metric invariance for gender and age were demonstrated; however, only partial scalar invariance could be demonstrated with some items showing “bias” for gender and age. The Mexican Spanish BPFSC‐11 also showed strong convergence with measures assessing contemporary conceptualization of general personality functioning.ConclusionsThe Mexican Spanish BPFSC‐11 appears to show similarly strong psychometric properties of other versions of the BPFSC‐11; and the borderline construct as assessed with the BPFSC‐11 shows good conversion with general personality functioning in adolescents.