Exploring the Association Between Emotional Abuse and Childhood Borderline Personality Features: The Moderating Role of Personality Traits
Section snippets
Importance of Borderline Personality Symptoms in Childhood
Most research on the factors associated with childhood BP pathology has used modified criteria corresponding to adult BPD diagnostic criteria to diagnose BPD in children (Goldman et al., 1992, Greenman et al., 1986, Guzder et al., 1999, Guzder et al., 1996, Paris et al., 1999). Despite providing evidence that the environmental and neuropsychological factors associated with a BPD diagnosis in childhood are the same as those associated with BPD in adults (Goldman et al., 1992, Guzder et al., 1996
Participants
This study employed data from a sample of 277 participant dyads (children aged 9 to 13 at initial enrollment and their parents/legal guardians) participating in a larger prospective study of behavioral, environmental, and genetic mechanisms of risk for HIV-related risk behaviors in youth. Participants were a convenience sample of children and their caregivers recruited through media outreach in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, as well as study advertisements distributed to area
Variable Transformations and Calculations
Skewness and kurtosis of all variables were within the acceptable range of normality (i.e., skewness < 3 and kurtosis < 10; see Kline, 1998). Therefore, variable transformations were not required. However, before creating the interaction terms, the affective dysfunction, impulsivity, and emotional abuse variables were centered (i.e., put in deviation score form), so that the mean of each variable was 0 (see Aiken & West, 1991). These standardized scores were then used to create the interaction
Discussion
Despite the growing body of research examining the prognosis, course, consequences, and correlates of BPD in adults, little is known about the emergence of BP pathology in youth, or the factors associated with childhood BP features (Crick et al., 2005, Paris, 2005). Thus, the goal of the present study was to examine the interrelations among two BPD-relevant personality traits (i.e., affective dysfunction and impulsivity), emotional abuse (an environmental stressor previously found to be
Acknowledgment
This research was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant R01 DA18647, awarded to C. W. Lejuez.
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