Parental attitudes and intensification of borderline personality traits: the mediational role of self-control and identity integration.

Krzysztof Kwapis,Aleksandra Pohl,Jacek Prusak,Agnieszka Krawczyk

doi:10.12740/pp/onlinefirst/139887

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between parental attitudes, selfcontrol, identity integration, and traits of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in a non-clinical sample of adults. Additionally, it will examine the role of self-control and identity integration as direct predictors of BPD, and as potential mediators of the association between parental attitudes and BPD traits. The study involved a group of 162 adults drawn from the general population. The study participants were asked to complete the Questionnaire of Retrospective Assessment of Parental Attitudes (KPR-Roc) by Plopa, one subscale of the Lifestyle Questionnaire 05/SK by Trzebińska, subscale Identity Integration of the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory (MSEI) by O'Brien and Epstein in a Polish adaptation by Fecenec, and the Self-Control Scale (SCS) by Tangney et al. in the adaptation by Kwapis and Bartczuk. The results demonstrated a significant correlation of self-control and identity integration with parental attitudes (except from an excessively protective attitude presented by the mother and father), as well as negative correlations of both identity integration and self-control with BPD traits. Structural modeling analysis revealed that the mother's inconsequent attitude and identity integration have a direct impact on BPD traits, whereas the mother's excessively demanding attitude and self-control influence BPD traits only indirectly. An inconsequent father's attitude influences BPD traits in both direct and indirect ways. Self-control and identity integration are the mediators of the relationship between a mother's excessively demanding attitude and a father's inconsequent attitude with BPD traits. The impact of self - control on BPD traits is mediated by identity integration. Parental attitudes of both the mother and father are associated with selfcontrol, identity integration and BPD traits. Self-control and identity integration mediate the influence of the selected parental attitudes on BPD traits.

Highlights

Leading psychological theories that describe borderline personality disorder (BPD) in a psychodynamic perspective oscillate between the conflict model and the deficit model
The results demonstrated a significant correlation of self-control and identity integration with parental attitudes, as well as negative correlations of both identity integration and self-control with BPD traits
Parental attitudes of both the mother and father are associated with selfcontrol, identity integration and BPD traits

Summary

Introduction

Leading psychological theories that describe borderline personality disorder (BPD) in a psychodynamic perspective oscillate between the conflict model and the deficit model. There are conceptualizations which prove that psychopathology of personality may be explained simultaneously within the conflict and the deficit model [1]. In the cognitive approach to borderline personality disorders, an interaction of three factors is emphasized: innate predispositions, learned features and traumatic events which generate disorder-specific false beliefs about self and others and the surrounding world. They coexist with relatively permanent patterns of coping with stress and patterns of interpersonal strategies. These, in turn, consolidate these inadequate beliefs and assumptions [1]

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