Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Theses

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    The specificity of emotion dysregulation and impulsivity to Borderline Personality Disorder: do they predict self-harm in female adolescents and young adults?
    Cheng, Jean ( 2014)
    Background. Emotion dysregulation and impulsivity have frequently been proposed as core components of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), where they have been theorized as risk factors for self-harm in the disorder. However, limitations in the empirical literature confine understanding of whether these constructs are specific to BPD or whether they might be common to other disorders. Further, the relationship (e.g., interaction) between emotion dysregulation and impulsivity in BPD has not been investigated empirically. Research Aims. The first research aim was to test for the specificity of emotion dysregulation to BPD, as well as in predicting self-harm behaviour in this disorder. The second research aim was to examine the multifaceted nature of impulsivity in BPD based on a self-report and behavioural measure. The third research aim was to investigate the specificity of the relationship between emotion dysregulation and impulsivity in predicting self-harm behaviour in BPD. Method. Participants were 37 female adolescents and young adults diagnosed with BPD and 31 female adolescent and young adults diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) recruited from public mental health services. Participants were aged 15 to 25 and reported at least one episode of self-harm behaviour in the previous 12 months. Self-report measures of emotion regulation (i.e., Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale; DERS) and trait impulsivity (i.e., Barratt Impulsiveness Scale; BIS-11) were completed. Participants were also interviewed about the frequency and lethality of their self-harm behaviour and asked to complete a behavioural measure of impulsivity (i.e., Stop-Signal Task). ANOVAs, MANCOVAs, and ANCOVA, were utilized to investigate the differences between the two groups. Hierarchical regression analyses and ordinal regression analyses were used to explore the predicting role of emotion dysregulation and impulsivity on self-harm frequency and self-harm lethality, respectively. Results. (i) Emotion dysregulation was significantly more pronounced in the BPD group, compared to MDD group (p < 0.001). Emotion dysregulation also significantly predicted self-harm frequency only in the BPD group (p = 0.023). (ii) Trait impulsivity was significantly higher in the BPD group, compared to the MDD group (p < 0.001), but no between-group differences were found for behavioural impulsivity (p = 0.332). Trait and behavioural impulsivity failed to predict self-harm frequency and lethality in both groups (p > .05 for all analyses). (iii) The interaction between emotion dysregulation and impulsivity (trait and behavioural) significantly predicted self-harm frequency only in the BPD group (p = 0.033 and p = 0.001 for trait and behavioural impulsivity, respectively). Conclusion. Findings support theoretical conceptualizations of BPD as a disorder of emotion dysregulation, confirming that emotion dysregulation is significantly more pronounced in BPD (compared to another emotion-regulation related disorder), and has a strong influence in predicting self-harm frequency in BPD. Findings also highlight the significant interacting influence of emotion dysregulation and impulsivity on BPD self-harm frequency, suggesting that impulsivity may not influence self-harm frequency in BPD in the absence of ‘affective’ components.