Personality disorder symptomatology in Belgian emerging adults: Associations with identity processes and statuses

Abstract

Individual differences in identity development are commonly captured by identity statuses, representing combinations of high and/or low scores on identity exploration and commitme nt processes. Although identity impairment is considered a potential diagnostic criterion of all personality disorders (PDs) in Section III of DSM-5, studies that relate identity processes or statuses to PDs are limited. The current study examined associations between identity processes and statuses, and dimensionally measured PDs among 343 Belgian emerging adults (71.4% female; Mage = 22.73, SD = 2.85, age range = 18-30). Stepwise cluster analysis on the identity processes revealed six identity statuses: achievement, foreclosure, searching moratorium, troubled diffusion, carefree diffusion, and an undifferentiated status. Generally, commitme nt making and identification with commitment were negatively associated with PDs, whereas ruminative exploration was positively related to PDs. Individuals in troubled and carefree diffusion statuses reported the highest mean scores on PD symptomatology, whereas individuals in achievement and foreclosure statuses reported the lowest mean PD scores. The present findings suggest that individuals who appear unable to settle on identifying-defining commitments are prone to the highest levels of PD symptomatology.

Parental identity formation in mothers is linked to borderline and depressive symptoms: A person-centered analyses

“…Consistently with studies focused on other identity domains (Bogaerts et al, 2021), mothers with higher borderline and depressive symptoms turned out to be at higher risk for lower commitment and identification with a parental role, stronger doubts about being a parent, and dreaming about the 'life without kids' (Piotrowski, 2021b). The present study, like an earlier study by Meca et al (2020) on a sample of U.S. parents, also confirmed that the dimension of exploration is not closely related to parents' mental health.…”

“…Among its different correlates, depressive and anxiety symptoms are also closely related to personality pathology such as borderline personality disorder (BPD; Gunderson and Philips, 1991 ; Koenigsberg et al, 1999 ), which has not yet been studied in the context of parental identity. People with BPD, experience highly unstable emotional and relational life, are characterized by strong and unpredictable reactions, risky behaviors, unstable self-esteem and also a fragile sense of identity ( Gunderson and Philips, 1991 ; Bogaerts et al, 2021 ). Thus, it can be assumed that parents with high borderline symptoms may also have considerable difficulty forming a stable identity of themselves as parents.…”

Longitudinal links between identity and substance use in adolescence

“…Specifically, the present findings could be explained by a spectrum/continuity model, in which identity and substance use might be extremities of the same underlying construct, or a common cause model. While the former seems unlikely, in the latter case, both identity issues and substance use may, for instance, be predicted by stressful experiences (Anthis, 2002;Low et al, 2012), personality pathology (Bogaerts et al, 2020), or lack of autonomy (Ryan et al, 2006). However, several issues need to be considered before we can apply these explanations.…”

An item response theory analysis of two frequently used measures of identity development.

“…As of April 2022, the original manuscripts about the U-MICS (Crocetti et al, 2008) and the DIDS (Luyckx et al, 2008) have been cited more than 350 and 430 times in Web of Science and over 750 and 990 times in Google Scholar, respectively. The wide use of these measures reflects the high relevance of these processes for myriad aspects of both adaptive and maladaptive functioning across the lifespan for both clinical (e.g., Klimstra & Denissen, 2017) and general (Bogaerts et al, 2021) applications.…”