The protective role of attachment security for adolescent borderline personality disorder features via enhanced positive emotion regulation strategies.

Abstract

While studies have documented significant associations between insecure attachment, emotion dysregulation, and borderline personality disorder (BPD) features, no research to date has empirically delineated the specific mechanisms by which these constructs are related. The present study brings together 2 lines of research that have hitherto separately examined attachment disturbance and emotion dysregulation as they respectively manifest in the pathogenesis of BPD, and explores the complex relations between the 2 well-established correlates of borderline traits in a clinical sample of adolescents (N = 228). We examined the adolescents' use of positive and negative emotion regulation strategies, along with their maternal and paternal attachment security. Results indicated that positive and negative emotion regulation strategies were differentially implicated in the link between attachment insecurity and BPD features. Attachment security functioned as a buffer against adolescent BPD by enhancing positive emotion regulation strategies, while negative emotion regulation strategies served to dilute the protective effect of attachment and positive regulation strategies, culminating in clinically significant levels of borderline traits. Findings are discussed with regard to interventions in the developmental trajectory of BPD as it unfolds during adolescence.