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The Moderating Effect of Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms on the Relationship Between Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and the Perception of Social Support

Forsythe, Vibh Afton
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1299529857

Abstract Details

2011, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Psychology.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by intense and difficult to regulate emotional experiences (DSM-IV-TR, 2000; Linehan, 1993). Identifying the types of emotion regulation that are particularly disrupted for individuals with high BPD symptoms may allow researchers and clinicians to create and implement more specific and targeted interventions. The relationship instability associated with BPD (Hill et al., 2008) suggests that interpersonal emotion regulation may be particularly affected by the disorder. In order to test the hypothesis that BPD features would moderate the relation between perceived social support and interpersonal emotion regulation, 300 undergraduate students completed a number of self-report questionnaires. Results suggested that more positive perceptions of the quality and availability of social support were associated with increased likelihood of using interpersonal emotion regulation strategies (r = .38). Furthermore, BPD features and social support, when entered together in the same step of a regression model, were both related to interpersonal emotion regulation strategy use. Additionally, in the second step of the regression, there was a significant interaction between BPD symptoms and the perception of social support, which accounted for additional unique variance in interpersonal emotion regulation. Thus, although interpersonal emotion regulation strategy use was positively associated with the perception of available, good quality social support, this relationship was weaker for individuals with higher BPD symptoms. Follow-up analyses suggested that this interaction was present for the use of functional interpersonal emotion regulation strategies but not for dysfunctional interpersonal emotion regulation strategies, which were only predicted by BPD symptoms. These relationships were significant even in a non-selected, non-clinical sample, and may be even more pronounced in a sample of individuals with clinically significant levels of impairment in emotional and interpersonal functioning. The relationships elucidated by this study provide evidence that individuals with elevated BPD symptoms may rely less upon cues from the social context when engaging in emotion regulation than do people with lower BPD symptoms. These results suggest that individuals with high BPD features are using functional interpersonal emotion regulation strategies even when they perceive that the social network might not provide the desired support. As such, it may be important to intervene on how and when strategies are applied as much as interventions to change strategy use, when working with individuals with BPD and BPD features.
Jennifer Cheavens, PhD (Advisor)
Thomas Nygren, PhD (Committee Member)
Steven Beck, PhD (Committee Member)
Clinical Psychology; Psychology; Psychotherapy
Borderline Personality Disorder; interpersonal; emotion regulation; perceived social support

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Forsythe, V. A. (2011). The Moderating Effect of Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms on the Relationship Between Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and the Perception of Social Support [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1299529857

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Forsythe, Vibh. The Moderating Effect of Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms on the Relationship Between Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and the Perception of Social Support. 2011. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1299529857.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Forsythe, Vibh. "The Moderating Effect of Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms on the Relationship Between Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and the Perception of Social Support." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1299529857

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1299529857
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© 2011, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.