Interpersonal Functioning in Borderline Personality Disorder Traits: A Social Media Perspective

Jinnie Ooi,Lukasz Walasek,Cynthia S Q Siew,Sakari Lemola,Stephen Butterfill,John Michael

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-58001-x

Abstract

This is the first study to demonstrate interpersonal difficulties associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD) features in the domain of social media. Using crowdsourcing, we presented participants with a battery of questions about their recent social media use, and then assessed their BPD features using the short form of the Five-Factor Borderline Inventory. The results revealed that individuals with higher BPD trait scores reported posting more often on social media, as well as a higher incidence of experiencing regret after posting on social media, and of deleting or editing their posts. They also report a higher degree of importance of social media in their social behavior and daily routines. These results highlight the pervasiveness of interpersonal difficulties associated with BPD features even in the non-clinical population, and demonstrate that these difficulties are also observable in social media behavior. Our findings may provide a starting point for research using data from social media to illuminate the cognitive and emotional processes underpinning the interpersonal difficulties associated with BPD features, and to inform and assess therapeutic interventions.

Highlights

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe psychiatric condition associated with significant psychosocial impairments, high rates of comorbidity with other psychiatric conditions[1], high rates of suicide[2] and considerable economic costs due to intensive use of treatment and loss of productivity[3]
P2) Because high levels of borderline personality disorder (BPD) features are associated with impulsivity and with interpersonal dysfunction, we hypothesized that individuals with higher BPD trait scores would more often regret actions which they perform on social media
Impairment in interpersonal functioning has consistently been observed in individuals exhibiting high BPD features[8,9]

Summary

Introduction

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe psychiatric condition associated with significant psychosocial impairments, high rates of comorbidity with other psychiatric conditions[1], high rates of suicide[2] and considerable economic costs due to intensive use of treatment and loss of productivity[3]. It is unsurprising that maintaining social relationships was reported as one of the main motives for Facebook use in this study, plausibly to maintain a compensatory level of social engagement in those with limited real-world social networks It remains unclear whether the interpersonal difficulties that individuals with high BPD features experience are displayed in social media behavior. We tested the following predictions: P1) Given that interpersonal dysfunction is associated with persistent loneliness in BPD15, we reasoned that individuals with higher BPD trait scores may feel more of a need for social connection through social media use, and predicted that they would (P1) report posting more often on social media (in the previous two weeks). P2) Because high levels of BPD features are associated with impulsivity and with interpersonal dysfunction, we hypothesized that individuals with higher BPD trait scores would more often regret actions which they perform on social media (e.g., making posts, tweeting). The predictions, sample size, methods, and planned analyses were all pre-registered before data collection and can be accessed at: https://aspredicted.org/cq83y.pdf

Methods

Results

Conclusion