Main and Interactive Effects of Maternal Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and Negative Affect on Adolescent Girls' Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms

• NCJ Number: 251335
• Journal: COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH Volume: 40 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2016 Pages: 381-393
• Author(s): K. L. Dixon-Gordon; D. J. Whalen; L. N. Scott; N. D. Cummins; S. D. Stepp
• Date Published: June 2016
• Length: 13 pages
• Grant Number(s): 95-JD-FX-0018
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Since little is known about whether problemsolving and support/validation are associated with less borderline personality disorder (BPD) severity among adolescents, in the current study, adolescent girls (age 16; N = 74) and their mothers completed a conflict discussion task, and maternal problemsolving, support/validation, and girls' negative affect were coded.

Abstract

The transaction of adolescent's expressed negative affect and parental interpersonal emotion regulation are theoretically implicated in the development of BPD. For the current study, girls' BPD symptoms were assessed at four time points. A 3-way interaction of girls' negative affect, problemsolving, and support/validation indicated that girls' negative affect was only associated with BPD severity in the context of low maternal support/validation and high maternal problemsolving. These variables did not predict changes in BPD symptoms over time. Although high negative affect is a risk for BPD severity in adolescent girls, maternal interpersonal emotion regulation strategies moderated this link. Whereas maternal problemsolving coupled with low support/validation was associated with a stronger negative affect-BPD relation, maternal problemsolving paired with high support/validation was associated with an attenuated relationship. (Publisher abstract modified)