Emotion Regulation Abilities and Strategies in Borderline Personality Disorder

Abstract

Borderline personality disorder (BPD), a complex disorder linked to adverse behavioral outcomes and impaired functioning, is associated with difficulties in emotion regulation (ER)—including both ER abilities and use of ER strategies. BPD commonly co-occurs with other disorders that are themselves linked to emotion dysregulation. Thus, it is important to consider the potential role of these comorbidities when examining ER difficulties in BPD. The present study investigated relationships between ER abilities, ER strategies, and BPD, while considering key comorbidities, among a sample of participants: (a) diagnosed with BPD, (b) without BPD but matched to BPD group members on key classes of psychopathology (i.e., mood, anxiety, substance use, trauma-related, and other personality disorders; matched psychiatric control [MPC] group), or (c) free of assessed psychopathology (healthy control [HC] group). Results revealed few significant differences between the BPD and MPC groups, who both demonstrated greater impairments than the HC group across most ER abilities and strategies. Notable exceptions were greater impulse control difficulty (ability) and anger rumination (strategy) in the BPD relative to both other groups. Additionally, lower composite maladaptive ER strategies and higher composite adaptive strategies distinguished the HC from BPD group, with neither composite ER abilities nor strategies differentiating the MPC from BPD group, though this result is limited by statistical overlap between variables. By elucidating the potential role of psychiatric comorbidity in two key components of ER in BPD, this study contributes to a growing literature that may help inform therapeutic interventions targeting the severe emotional and behavioral dysregulation commonly seen in this complex disorder.