Childhood maltreatment, personality vulnerability profiles, and borderline personality disorder symptoms in adolescents

Adverse childhood experiences are significant risk factors in the development of adolescent borderline personality disorder symptoms (BPDs). Theorists have posited that two personality vulnerabilities factors, self-criticism and dependency, may inform our understanding of this relationship. However, no research has examined the associations between early negative experiences, personality vulnerabilities, and adolescent BPDs. The current study aimed to identify profiles of dependency and self-criticism to examine the associations of these profiles with cumulative forms of childhood maltreatment (CM) and BPDs as well as to explore the mediating and moderating role of vulnerable personality profiles in the relationship between cumulative CM and BPDs. Two hundred and forty-one nonclinical and clinical adolescents participated in the study (Mage = 16.37, SD = 1.84). The findings indicated three different profiles: average dependent profile, dependent and self-critical profile, and self-critical profile. Individuals in the average dependent profile presented lower levels of CM and BPDs. Mediation analyses showed that relative to the average dependent profile, a higher cumulative CM history predicted a higher probability of belonging in the dependent and self-critical profile or the self-critical profile and, in turn, this was associated with higher levels of BPDs. No moderating effects of profiles of dependency and self-criticism were found.

Sociotropy, Autonomy and Emotional Symptoms in Patients with Major Depression or Generalized Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Rumination and Immature Defenses

The relationships between dimensions of personality (sociotropy and autonomy), coping strategies (rumination: brooding and reflection subtypes, and immature defenses) and symptoms of depression and anxiety were explored in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). A total of 279 patients completed questionnaires including measures of personality dimensions, rumination, immature defenses, depression and anxiety. Our findings suggested that sociotropy and autonomy may be associated with both depressive and anxious symptoms in patients with MDD and with GAD. Multiple mediation analyses indicated that brooding always acted as a mediating link between personality vulnerabilities (sociotropy and autonomy) and depressive and anxiety symptoms, independently of the patient group. In addition, in patients with MDD and those with GAD, brooding and immature defenses functioned together by linking sociotropy and autonomy, respectively, with depressive symptoms. Our results also showed that, in patients with GAD, both types of rumination explained the relationship between sociotropy and autonomy and anxiety symptoms. Overall, our findings provided evidence of the transdiagnostic role of the brooding, linking the vulnerability of personality dimensions and emotional symptoms. They also indicated that reflection and immature defenses can operate in conjunction with brooding, depending on the type of vulnerability and emotional context.

Parenting stress and competence in borderline personality disorder is associated with mental health, trauma history, attachment and reflective capacity.

Background: Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) may experience additional challenges in their parenting role, including increased stress and lower self-efficacy and satisfaction. These difficulties have been shown to impact their children, and may be implicated in the potential intergenerational transmission of personality vulnerabilities. Methods: Parental stress and competence variables were examined in a cross-sectional study of 284 parents (94.72% female, M=37.37, SD=8.04 years), of which 69 (24.30%) met caseness for BPD criteria. We completed a multivariate analysis of variance to test how parents with ‘high BPD features’ (meeting caseness for BPD) compared to those with ‘low BPD features’ on a range of parenting and mental health variables. Multivariate linear regression modelling was then utilised to explore whether these parenting variables were associated with personality and psychological wellbeing, recalled trauma history, orientation to attachment relationships and reflective capacity. Results: Individuals high in BPD features experienced more stress and lower competence in their parenting role than those low in BPD features. These parents also reported more personality vulnerabilities, poorer psychological wellbeing, recalled more traumatic experiences in their childhood, were more likely to endorse insecure attachment styles and had poorer reflective capacity. In the regression model, parenting stress and competence was associated with personality traits, general psychological wellbeing, recalled trauma history, attachment style and reflective capacity variables. Parental reflective capacity had the strongest association with parenting stress, satisfaction, efficacy, the perception of having a difficult child and a difficult parent-child relationship, and psychological wellbeing had the greatest association with parenting distress. Conclusions: Parents who were able to imaginatively enter the subjective world of the child and hold the child’s mind in mind with less certainty, reported reduced parenting stress and greater parenting satisfaction and efficacy. Helping to improve personality and mental health functioning, increasing parental reflective capacity and strengthening parent-child attachment relationships, may reduce parenting stress and increase parenting competence in individuals with BPD.

Axis I Disorders

The purpose of this chapter is to summarize and discuss the complex relationship between Five Factor Model (FFM) personality traits and clinical (Axis I) psychopathology, including depressive, bipolar, anxiety, obsessive–compulsive, eating, schizophrenia and psychotic, trauma and stress-related, and substance use disorders. Considered herein will be the alternative forms of relationship, including vulnerability, common cause, pathoplasty, complication/scar, and spectrum. This chapter will highlight the necessity for well-designed, longitudinal studies aimed at elucidating the complex relationships between the FFM and clinical disorders. Consistent research supports Neuroticism as a vulnerability factor to certain disorders, even sharing genetic etiology. However, there are also important contributions for each of the other four domains. The majority of this research is in the area of mood and anxiety disorders. Expanding these studies to include other forms of psychopathology could help identify common personality vulnerabilities to psychopathology, as well as unique predictors of certain constellations of symptoms.