Borderline Personality Traits: The Roles of Childhood Teasing and Traumatic Experiences

The relationship of borderline personality traits with childhood teasing and traumatic experiences is a major risk factor in the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms; nonetheless, this relationship is not fully understood.  The present study aimed to provide further evidence on the role of childhood teasing, traumatic experiences, and other pathological personality traits, such as negative affectivity, antagonism, psychoticism, disinhibition, detachment, depression, anxiety, and stress symptom, in the development of borderline personality disorder, especially in Iranian non-clinical populations.

A total of 385 college students were assessed by teasing questionnaire-revised (TQ-R), childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ), Personality Inventory for DSM-5 Brief Form (PID-5-BF), the borderline personality scale (SIB), and the depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS-21).

Descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlations, and stepwise regression analysis statistics were conducted to examine the relationship of borderline personality traits with childhood teasing and traumatic experiences. The current study supported the significant positive correlation of borderline personality disorder with PID-5-BF, such as negative affectivity, antagonism, psychoticism, disinhibition, detachment, depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms, as well as teasing and traumatic experiences in non-clinical individuals.

As evidenced by the results of this study, childhood traumatic experiences have a prominent role to play in the development of borderline personality psychopathology.