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

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Abstract

The transaction of adolescent’s expressed negative affect and parental interpersonal emotion regulation are theoretically implicated in the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although problem solving and support/validation are interpersonal strategies that foster emotion regulation, little is known about whether these strategies are associated with less BPD severity among adolescents. Adolescent girls (age 16; N = 74) and their mothers completed a conflict discussion task, and maternal problem solving, support/validation, and girls’ negative affect were coded. Girls’ BPD symptoms were assessed at four time points. A 3-way interaction of girls’ negative affect, problem solving, 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 problem solving. 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 moderate this link. Whereas maternal problem solving coupled with low support/validation is associated with a stronger negative affect-BPD relation, maternal problem solving paired with high support/validation is associated with an attenuated relationship.

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Notes

  1. Of note, when maternal problem solving was considered as the independent variable, and girls’ negative affect and maternal support/validation were considered as moderators, maternal problem solving was associated with lower BPD severity in the context of low girls’ negative affect and low maternal support/validation, B = −0.28, SE = 0.12, z = −2.38, p = .02. In contrast, in the context of low girls’ negative affect and high maternal support/validation, there was no significant association between maternal problem solving and BPD severity, B = 0.21, SE = .27, z = 0.77, p = .44. In the context of high girls’ negative affect and low maternal support/validation, problem solving was marginally associated with BPD severity, B = 0.50, SE = 0.27, z = 1.87, p = .06, whereas in the context of high girls’ negative affect and high maternal support/validation, maternal problem solving was marginally associated with lower BPD severity, B = −0.38, SE = 0.21, z = −1.76, p = .08. In terms of regions of significance, simple slopes were significant outside the region demarcated by girls’ negative affect at the lower bound (−1.12) and upper bound (2.36) of low maternal support/validation.

  2. Although the incorporation of repeated measures of BPD severity increases our power to detect significant effects (Raudenbush and Xiao-Feng 2001), given the absence of significant interactions with time, we trimmed the interactions with time from the model and estimated the model again. The interaction of girls’ negative affect, maternal problem solving, and maternal support/validation remained significant, B = −0.12, SE = 0.05, p = .02.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the families of the Pittsburgh Girls Study for their dedication and ongoing participation in this project. This research was supported by Grants from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (95-JD-FX-0018) and from the National Institute on Mental Health (MH56630). Diana J. Whalen’s effort was supported by T32 MH100019 to Drs. Deanna Barch and Joan Luby. Lori N. Scott’s effort was supported by K01 MH101289. Stephanie D. Stepp’s effort was supported by K01 MH086713.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Katherine L. Dixon-Gordon

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, Box 8511, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA

    Diana J. Whalen

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 3811 O’Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Lori N. Scott & Stephanie D. Stepp

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, 1227 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA

    Nicole D. Cummins

  5. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 3811 O’Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Stephanie D. Stepp

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  1. Katherine L. Dixon-Gordon
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Correspondence to Katherine L. Dixon-Gordon.

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Katherine L. Dixon-Gordon, Diana J. Whalen, Lori N. Scott, Nicole D. Cummins and Stephanie D. Stepp declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Dixon-Gordon, K.L., Whalen, D.J., Scott, L.N. et al. The Main and Interactive Effects of Maternal Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and Negative Affect on Adolescent Girls’ Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms. Cogn Ther Res 40, 381–393 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-015-9706-4

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