Associations between borderline personality disorder symptoms and personality functioning in adolescents: A brief report

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental disorder, which has been linked to a number of negative outcomes in adolescents and adults. BPD is generally linked to more severe impairments in personality functioning. The (differential) association of specific BPD symptoms with severity level, however, has not been explored yet. The present study explores the relationship between all nine BPD symptoms and impairments in personality functioning in adolescents using a cross-sectional design. A total of 116 treatment-seeking adolescents were administered semistructured interviews for DSM-IV Axis I and Axis II disorders and the semistructured interview for personality functioning DSM-5 (STiP-5.1). Furthermore, the potential association of symptom disorders, and more specifically mood disorders, with level of personality functioning was assessed. Together, the nine BPD criteria were significantly related to STiP-5.1 total score, even when controlling for the presence of a mood disorder. However, when taking the effect of number of symptom disorders and the other BPD symptoms into account, only the presence of recurrent self-harm and/or suicidal behavior and intense anger, were associated with a higher level of impairment in personality functioning. These findings emphasize the diagnostic importance of repeated self-harm and suicidality and provide additional evidence for the value of using BPD criteria to easily identify teenagers at risk.