Structural model of borderline personality disorder based on child abuse experience, schema modes, and mother's perceived parenting styles with the mediating role of emotion regulation difficulty

The borderline personality disorder is a stable psychological disorder that poses significant psychological adjustment challenges. As a result, identifying effective factors can be useful in developing prevention programs. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of emotion regulation difficulty in the relationship between child abuse experience, schema modes, and mother's perceived parenting styles with borderline personality.

The method of the present study is descriptive-correlation based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population of the present study was all individuals with borderline personality disorder referred to treatment centers (clinics and psychiatric hospitals) in Tehran in 2019, of which 250 were selected by purposive sampling. For data collection, all participants completed the following instruments: the Leichsenring's Borderline Personality, the Mohammadkhani's child abuse, the Lobbestael's Schema Modes, the Grolnick's Perceived Parenting, and the Toronto Alexithymia scale, and the Gratz and Roemer Difficulties in Emotion Regulation.

The results indicated that there is a direct and significant relationship between emotion regulation difficulty, child abuse experience, schema modes, and mother's perceived parenting styles with borderline personality (P>0.05). In addition, child abuse experience, Schema Modes, and mother's perceived parenting styles with borderline personality were indirectly associated with borderline personality with the mediating role of emotion regulation difficulty (P>0.05).

The present study confirmed the role of emotion regulation difficulty, child abuse experience, schema modes, and mother's perceived parenting styles in explaining borderline personality, which provides clinicians with the theoretical basis for developing preventive programs. Theoretical and practical implications of the presented results and model are also discussed.