The development of narrative identity and the emergence of personality disorders in adolescence
Open accessAbstract
Narrative identity is likely to be important in the development of personality disorder (PD) in adolescence. Adolescents' life narratives provide rich material that is near to their lived experiences and reveal individual differences in self and relatedness and in ways of constructing meaning. Narrative identity is linked with well-being and psychopathology and shapes coping with adversity. Preliminary research suggests that adolescents and adults with PD narrate their lives in ways that are more negative and express lower agency; narratives may also contain content reflecting PD symptoms. Youth's narrative identities may express personality disturbances in self and relationship processes and may affect the consolidation of or recovery from emerging PD in the transition to adulthood - all possibilities worthy of future investigation.
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In borderline personality disorder, a person may be unable to construe life as an ongoing narrative, continuous in time.
“In borderline personality disorder, a person may be unable to construe life as an ongoing narrative, continuous in time (Shiner et al., 2021).”
From Self and identity in personality psychology (2021) · cites this paper as Shiner et al., 2021
The section on preliminary evidence linking narrative identity and personality disorders reports that BPD features are associated with lower narrative coherence. It does not establish that a person with BPD may be unable to construe life as an ongoing narrative continuous in time. Page numbers were not available for these passages. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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- Authors
- Shiner, R. L., Klimstra, T. A., Denissen, J. J., & See, A. Y.
- Affiliations
- Colgate University (US)
- Tilburg University (NL)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Shiner, Rebecca L
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-02
- Volume
- 37
- Pages
- 49-53
- ISSN
- 2352-250X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3047002048
- Cited by
- 23
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 0.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (452–14-013)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Keywords
- narrative identity, personality disorders, adolescence, life stories, self-concept, relatedness, agency, psychopathology, coming of age, meaning-making, coping with adversity
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Humans, Personality, Personality Disorders, Self Concept, Narration
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