Screening for borderline personality pathology on college campuses

Abstract

Although borderline symptoms show a normative decline throughout adulthood, severe psychosocial impairment often remains. Identifying personality pathology in college‐age students may help prevent “adaptive failure” that can occur during the critical period of development from puberty through the late 20s and thus reduce impairment later in life. The aims of the current study were to estimate the prevalence of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in a diverse college sample, determine which symptoms confer the greatest relative risk of screening positive for BPD and examine the utility of the Personality Inventory for DSM‐5 brief form (PID‐5‐BF) in identifying BPD. Participants were 1456 undergraduate students, and 312 individuals (21.4% of the sample) screened positive for BPD. Chronic feelings of emptiness conferred the greatest relative risk of any symptom; students who endorsed this symptom were 15 times more likely to screen positive for BPD than those who did not. Scales and composite scores of the PID‐5‐BF demonstrated diagnostic accuracy ranging from sufficient to excellent. The current study contributes to literature concerning best practices in screening for personality pathology in young adults. Results suggest that chronic feelings of emptiness are significant for detecting at‐risk students and implications for the use of the PID‐5‐BF are discussed.

Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms and Its Clinical Correlates among Chinese University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…In terms of sex differences, a related survey among a large number of university students in China demonstrated a higher prevalence among females than males [ 57 ], and a recent publication among American students found sex differences between females and males [ 7 ]. Our findings showed that the prevalence of BPD symptoms among both sexes was equal, which was congruent with those from a related meta-analysis.…”

“…The literature review demonstrated that the prevalence of BPD among university students ranged from 0.5 to 32.1% and varied from time to time, as well as from culture to culture [ 2 , 7 ]. In China, the prevalence of BPD among Chinese undergraduate students ranged between 0.67 and 17.7% [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”

Different Effects of Perceived Social Support on the Relationship between Perceived Stress and Depression among University Students with Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms: A Multigroup Mediation Analysis

“…For example, while the present study demonstrated that BPDS is related to the male sex, many studies have found no sex differences [ 75 , 76 ]. Some studies, however, have found a higher prevalence in the female sex [ 77 , 78 ]. In addition, the present study found that older age groups and more years of studying were related to BPDS, in contrast to some studies with younger age groups [ 78 ].…”

Contextualizing motherhood in persons with borderline personality vulnerabilities: cultural adaptation of the parent development interview-revised in an Indian context

“…The growing shift from categorial to dimensional models of personality disorders in research literature and current classificatory systems of psychiatric disorders (Zimmerman, Chelminski, Young, Dalrymple & Martinez, 2013 ) reflect the importance of attending to vulnerabilities even at a sub-threshold level of personality disorder (Kaess Fischer-Waldschmidt, Resch & Koenig, 2017 , Cano, Sumlin & Sharp, 2021 ). In the context of parenting, studies that have included mothers with a diagnosis of BPD as well as those with sub-threshold symptoms suggest the presence of several challenges.…”