Borderline Personality Features, Anger, and Intimate Partner Violence: An Experimental Manipulation of Rejection

Alday A, Jay J. Aurellano A, Raven R. Escala S, Ermelo V. Hernandez P, Esrom P. Matienzo J, Marian R. Panaguiton K, Charmaine C. Tan A, Zsila Á. Minority Stressors and Attitudes Toward Intimate Partner Violence Among Lesbian and Gay Individuals

Sexual minority individuals experience more intimate partner violence (IPV) than those in heterosexual relationships. Issues of mistrust, stigma, and anticipation of abuse contribute to these rates. Lesbian and gay IPV victims have distinct experiences from their abuses with exposure to homophobia, heterosexism, discrimination, and threats of sexual disclosure, among others. These unique and additive minority stressors can lead to adverse health concerns, increase vulnerability to victimization, and elevate abuse perpetration. This study aimed to investigate whether experiences of minority stressors are associated with attitudes toward intimate partner violence among a sample of 240 lesbian and gay Filipinos (155 lesbian and 85 gay participants) aged 20 to 40. Through convenience sampling, lesbian and gay Filipinos completed the Sexual Minority Stress Scale (SMSS) and Intimate Partner Violence Attitude Scale-Revised (IPVAS-Revised). Comparing the minority stressors levels among the participants, lesbians expressed higher expectations of rejection, while gay men experienced more sexual minority adverse events. Lesbians also reported higher satisfaction with outness. Regarding IPV, gay men expressed slightly more favorable attitudes toward abuse, which could make them at risk of becoming victims or perpetrators. Internalized homophobia was associated with more favorable attitudes toward abuse and control, indicating its contribution to more favorable IPV attitudes, although the explanatory power was modest.

What If I Feel Rejected? Borderline Personality, Pathological Narcissism, and Social Rejection in Daily Life

The authors investigate whether and how borderline and pathological narcissistic traits differ in their associations with trait and state rejection sensitivity, and with affective reactions to experiences of social rejection occurring in daily life. Community adults (N = 189) completed baseline measures of rejection sensitivity, borderline personality, and pathological narcissism, and daily measures of perceived social rejection and affective states for 7 days. Vulnerable narcissism was the main driver of negative anticipated emotions for social rejection. Borderline personality made people prone to experiencing social rejection in daily life. Moreover, borderline personality traits predicted greater self-directed aggressive impulses when experiencing social rejection. Grandiose narcissism showed only a negative association with anticipatory anxiety for rejection. These findings highlight that sensitivity to social rejection is crucial in both borderline personality and pathological narcissism.

Impulsivity, impulsive aggression and borderline personality features among violent spouses

Objective

Spousal violence in Pakistan is under researched but still not considered as a public health problem. The current study is intended to analyze the association between multiple measures of impulsivity, impulsive aggression, and borderline personality feature among violent spouses as well as to find out the moderating role of impulsive aggression between spousal violence and borderline personality features.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey research design was used for conducting the research. The sample of 300 spouses, experiencing intimate partner relationships, was taken from different cities of the Hazara division through purposive sampling.

Results

Present study demonstrated a significant positive correlation of spousal violence with impulsivity (r = .708∗∗, P < .001), impulsive aggression (r = .176∗∗, P < .001), and borderline personality features (r = .605∗∗, P < .001), while impulsivity was negatively correlated with impulsive aggression (r = -.018, P < .01). Impulsive aggression moderates the relationship between spousal violence and borderline personality features. The results showed that male and female spouses were found equally impulsive and impulsively aggressive. Likewise, impulsivity, impulsive aggression, and borderline personality features were found significant predictors of violence F = (3, 296) = 106. 67, P < .001.

Conclusion

Current research offers some important insights and consequences for physicians and practitioners who interact with individuals who have experienced violence. These results have significant therapeutic implications for the treatment of violent couples.

Cluster B Personality Traits and Psychological Intimate Partner Violence: Considering the Mediational Role of Alcohol

The study of intimate partner violence (IPV) has evolved into more complex and integrative models to better understand the explanatory mechanisms of IPV perpetration. Nevertheless, integrative models rarely permit an in-depth analysis of a large number of relevant variables, and more specific approximations are required as basis of them. In this sense, the individual approach is the most productive research line. From the individual perspective and using data from imprisoned male offenders, the present study aimed to analyze the potential mediating role of alcohol dependence in the association of Cluster B personality traits and psychological IPV. The sample included 196 male inmates of the Penitentiary Center of Villabona (Asturias, Spain). Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothetical and alternative models. First, model results only showed an indirect effect of antisocial and borderline personalities mediated by alcohol dependence. Nevertheless, fitting of the model to the data was poor. Second, a fully saturated model was calculated, revealing a direct effect of histrionic personality on psychological IPV. Finally, an alternative model was tested adding to first model the direct effect of histrionic personality on psychological IPV. The fitting of the alternative model to the data was good. Antisocial and borderline personalities predicted psychological IPV when mediated by alcohol dependence, while histrionic personality had a direct effect on psychological IPV. Narcissistic personality did not affect psychological IPV. These results support the hypothesis regarding the use of alcohol as a coping mechanism in antisocial and borderline individuals, acting as a disinhibitory factor which increases the likelihood of psychological IPV occurrence. Contrary to previous research, a clear direct effect of histrionic personality and psychological IPV was obtained. This association can be explained by the necessity of attention of histrionic individuals and the type (psychological) of violence studied.

Psychobiological Correlates of Aggression in Female Adolescents with Borderline Personality Disorder

INTRODUCTION

Aggressive behavior in reaction to threats, frustration, or provocation is prevalent in borderline personality disorder (BPD). This study investigated aggressive behavior and its biological correlates in adolescents with BPD.

METHODS

Twenty-one female adolescents with a DSM-IV BPD diagnosis and 25 sex- and age-matched healthy controls participated in the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP), a laboratory-based experiment measuring aggressive behavior in the interpersonal context. Heart rate was measured and saliva samples were taken throughout the experiment.

RESULTS

Multilevel mixed-effects linear regression analyses revealed no significant group difference in aggressive behavior induced by the TAP. Additionally, the two groups did not differ in cortisol, testosterone, and heart rate responses to the aggression induction. The BPD group showed a significant cortisol increase in the time preceding the start of the TAP in contrast to the healthy control group, in whom a significant heart rate increase from baseline to the first block of the TAP was observed.

DISCUSSION

There was no evidence, either at the phenomenological or the biological level, of increased task-induced aggression in adolescents with BPD. The results may indicate that adolescents with BPD experienced fearful stress in anticipation of the experimental task in contrast to healthy controls who showed an adaptive response of the autonomic nervous system necessary to deal with the upcoming demand.

Complex PTSD and borderline personality disorder

BACKGROUND

This article builds on a previous review (Ford and Courtois, Borderline Personal Disord Emot Dysregul 1:9, 2014) which concluded that complex posttraumatic stress disorder (cPTSD) could not be conceptualized as a sub-type of either PTSD or BPD. Recent research is reviewed that extends and clarifies the still nascent understanding of the relationship between cPTSD and BPD.

MAIN BODY

The circumscribed formulation of adult cPTSD that has been developed, validated, and included in the 11th Edition of the International Classification of Diseases has spurred research aimed at differentiating cPTSD and BPD both descriptively and empirically. A newly validated Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD) syndrome for children and adolescents provides a basis for systematic research on the developmental course and origins of adult cPTSD and BPD. This review summarizes recent empirical findings regarding BPD, PTSD, and cPTSD in terms of: (1) prevalence and comorbidity; (2) clinical phenomenology; (3) traumatic antecedents; (4) psychobiology; (5) emotion dysregulation; (6) dissociation; and (7) empirically supported approaches to clinical assessment and psychotherapeutic treatment.

CONCLUSION

The evidence suggests that PTSD, cPTSD, and BPD are potentially comorbid but distinct syndromes. A hypothesis is advanced to stimulate scientific research and clinical innovation defining and differentiating the disorders, positing that they may represent a continuum paralleling the classic conceptualization of the stress response, with dissociation potentially involved in each disorder.