Childhood Emotional Abuse and Borderline Personality Disorder Features: The Mediating Roles of Attachment Style and Emotion Regulation

This study aimed to evaluate the mediating role of attachment styles and emotional regulation in the relationship of childhood emotional abuse and borderline personality disorder features. In a descriptive-correlational study, a sample of 312 students of Shahid Beheshti University was selected using cluster sampling method. Participants responded to the Child Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Borderline Personality Inventory (BPI), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS). Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) of Path Analysis type. Evaluation of the hypothesized model showed that this model has suitable fitness indices. Results showed that anxious attachment style and difficulties in emotion regulation can predict borderline personality disorder feature in full mediation. The result, supporting theoretical model for borderline personality disorder, proposes a suitable framework for etiology of the disorder.