Risk Factors for Borderline Personality Disorder in Adolescents
Open accessAbstract
The objective of this study was to assess the association between variables reflecting childhood adversity, protective childhood experiences, and the five-factor model of personality and BPD in adolescents. Two groups of adolescents were studied: 104 met criteria for BPD and 60 were psychiatrically healthy. Adverse and protective childhood experiences were assessed using a semistructured interview. The five-factor model of personality was assessed using the NEO-FFI. Eight of nine variables indicating severity of abuse and neglect, positive childhood relationships, childhood competence, and the personality factors studied were found to be significant bivariate risk factors for adolescent BPD. However, in a multivariate model, severity of neglect, higher levels of neuroticism, and lower levels of childhood competence were found to be the best risk factor model. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that all three types of risk factors studied are significantly associated with BPD in adolescents.
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Emotional and physical neglect have been shown to be a unique risk factor for BPD.
“As noted above, emotional and physical neglect have been shown to be a unique risk factor for BPD [48, 136, 194].”
From Complex PTSD and borderline personality disorder (2021) · cites this paper as [194]
The Discussion reports that childhood neglect, mostly emotional in nature, was a significant multivariate risk factor for adolescent BPD. The study assessed a combined neglect score; it does not show that physical neglect was independently a unique risk factor. The finding is also an association from a cross-sectional study, not proof of causation. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAdult BPD may be preceded by BPD in adolescence, or by BPD-like symptoms that manifest earlier in childhood among adolescents and adults diagnosed with BPD.
“Adult BPD also may be preceded by BPD in adolescence [194], or by BPD-like symptoms that manifest earlier in childhood among adolescents and adults diagnosed with BPD (e.g., self-harm; disorganized controlling behavior; regulatory problems) [110, 187, 191].”
From Complex PTSD and borderline personality disorder (2021) · cites this paper as [194]
The Results (Participants; page unavailable) document BPD in adolescents, and the Discussion (page unavailable) links childhood neglect and lower childhood competence to adolescent BPD. Neither passage establishes that BPD-like symptoms appeared in childhood before adolescent or adult BPD, or that adolescent BPD preceded adult BPD. Searches for the named childhood behaviors and developmental sequence found no such finding in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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- Authors
- Zanarini, M. C., Temes, C. M., Magni, L. R., Aguirre, B. A., Hein, K. E., & Goodman, M.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Personality Disorders
- Publisher
- Guilford Publications
- Published
- 2020-09
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- Supplement B
- Pages
- 17-24
- ISSN
- 0885-579X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7584111
- OpenAlex
- W2925715290
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 2.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Personality Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH062169)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Keywords
- borderline personality disorder, adolescents, risk factors, childhood adversity, child neglect, abuse, five-factor model of personality, neuroticism, personality traits
- MeSH terms
- Neuroticism, Adolescent, Psychology, Adolescent, Borderline Personality Disorder, Child, Child Abuse, Humans, Risk Factors
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