Abstract
Emotion regulation difficulties are a major characteristic of personality disorders. Our study investigated emotion regulation difficulties that are characteristic of borderline personality disorder (BPD), compared to a healthy control group. Patients with BPD (N = 59) and healthy participants (N = 70) filled out four self-report questionnaires (Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, Self-Compassion Scale) that measured the presence or lack of different emotion-regulation strategies. Differences between the BPD and the healthy control group were investigated by Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and univariate post-hoc F-test statistics. People suffering from BPD had statistically significantly (p<0.05) higher levels of emotional dysregulation and used more maladaptive emotion-regulation strategies, as well as lower levels of mindfulness and self-compassion compared to the HC group. In comparison to a healthy control group, BPD patients show deficits in the following areas: mindfulness, self-compassion and adaptive emotion-regulation strategies. Based on these results, we suggest that teaching emotion-regulation, mindfulness, and self-compassion skills to patients can be crucial in the treatment of borderline personality disorder.
Highlights
Emotion regulation consists of the capabilities to process and modulate affective experience
People suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD) had statistically significantly (p
We suggest that teaching emotion-regulation, mindfulness, and self-compassion skills to patients can be crucial in the treatment of borderline personality disorder
Summary
Emotion regulation consists of the capabilities to process and modulate affective experience. BPD patients are frequently experiencing overwhelming negative emotions such as abandonment, loneliness, jealousy, feeling rejected, hatred, envy, anger, shame and guilt [3,4,5] They often report aversive tension, a diffuse, highly aroused state with negative valence [6], and they have difficulties with identifying, naming, or putting into context these emotional states [7,8,9,10]. The way they respond to their negative emotions influences the frequency or intensity with which negative affect arises Their emotion and affect regulation strategies are dysfunctional; for example, they have a tendency towards clinginess [11], dissociation [12], emptiness [13], self-harming behavior [14], alcohol and substance use [15], impulsive sexual behaviors [16], binging, purging [17], and rumination [18]. We hypothesized that they are less able to use functional emotion regulation, such as being mindfully aware of one’s emotions, to label, accept and validate emotions, and to tolerate negative or positive emotion-related distress [2]
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