Adolescent Precursors of Adult Borderline Personality Pathology in a High-Risk Community Sample

• Authors: Christopher C. Conway, University of California; Constance Hammen, University of California; Patricia Brennan, Emory University
• Journal Title: Journal of Personality Disorders
• Volume: Volume 29, Number 3
• Publisher: Guilford Press | 2015-06, Pages 316-333
• Type of Work: Article | Post-print: After Peer Review
• Publisher DOI: http://doi.org/10.1521/pedi_2014_28_158
• Subjects: Psychology, Behavioral; Health Sciences, Human Development
• Keywords: Adolescence; Borderline Personality Disorder; Developmental psychopathology; Diathesis-stress; Young adulthood

Abstract

Longitudinal studies of the exact environmental conditions and personal attributes contributing to the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD) are rare. Further, existing research typically examines risk factors in isolation, limiting our knowledge of the relative effect sizes of different risk factors and how they act in concert to bring about borderline personality pathology. The present study investigated the prospective effects of diverse acute and chronic stressors, proband psychopathology, and maternal psychopathology on BPD features in a high risk community sample (N = 700) of youth followed from mid-adolescence to young adulthood. Multivariate analyses revealed significant effects of maternal externalizing disorder history, offspring internalizing disorder history, family stressors, and school-related stressors on BPD risk. Contrary to expectations, no interactions between chronically stressful environmental conditions and personal characteristics in predicting borderline personality features were detected. Implications of these findings for etiological theories of BPD and early screening efforts are discussed.