Dataset Information

Body connection mediates the relationship between traumatic childhood experiences and impaired emotion regulation in borderline personality disorder.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Previous studies revealed an association between traumatic childhood experiences and emotional dysregulation in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, possible mediating pathways are still not fully understood. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential mediating role of body connection, describing the awareness of the relationship of bodily and mental states, for the association between a history of traumatic childhood experiences and BPD core symptomatology.

Methods

One-hundred-twelve adult female individuals with BPD and 96 healthy female controls (HC) were included. Impaired emotion regulation, traumatic childhood experiences, and BPD symptomatology were assessed with self-report questionnaires. The Scale of Body Connection was used to assess two dimensions of body connection, that is body awareness, describing attendance to bodily information in daily life and noticing bodily responses to emotions and/or environment and body dissociation, describing a sense of separation from one's own body, due to avoidance or emotional disconnection. Mann-Whitney U tests were employed to test for group differences (BPD vs. HC) on the two SBC subscales and associations with clinical symptoms were analyzed with Spearman correlations. We performed mediation analyses in the BPD group to test the assumption that body connection could act as a mediator between a history of traumatic childhood experiences and emotion dysregulation.

Results

Individuals with BPD reported significantly lower levels of body awareness and significantly higher levels of body dissociation compared to HC. Body dissociation, traumatic childhood experiences, and emotion dysregulation were significantly positively associated. Further analyses revealed that body dissociation, but not body awareness, significantly and fully mediated the positive relationship between traumatic childhood experiences and impaired emotion regulation in the BPD sample. This mediation survived when trait dissociation, i.e., general dissociative experiences not necessarily related to the body, was statistically controlled for.

Conclusion

Certain dimensions of body connection seem to be disturbed in BPD patients, with body dissociation being an important feature linking a history of traumatic childhood experiences to current deficits in emotion regulation.

SUBMITTER: Schmitz M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8127297 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundTraumatic childhood experiences are a major risk factor for developing mental disorders later in life. Over the past decade, researchers have begun to investigate the role of early trauma in impairments in personality functioning following the introduction of the Alternative Model of Personality Disorders in Section III of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders 5. Although first studies were able to empirically demonstrate a significant link between early trauma and impairments in personality functioning, only little is known about the underlying mechanisms. One possible mechanism is body connection due to its involvement in self-regulatory processes and its link to both early trauma and personality (dys)functioning.ObjectiveIn the current study, we investigated whether body connection, which encompasses the awareness, integration, and utilization of one's own bodily signals, mediates the relationship between childhood trauma and personality functioning.Participants and settingA total of 1,313 adult participants recruited in Germany and Chile anonymously provided self-report data in an online survey.MethodsSelf-report data included the short form of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF), the Scale of Body Connection (SBC), and the brief form of the Levels of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS-BF 2.0) as well as demographic data (age, sex, education, clinical diagnoses).ResultsTraumatic childhood experiences explained 27.2% of the variance in impairments in personality functioning. Interestingly, 60.5% of this effect was explained by body connection, particularly body dissociation. Additional exploratory analyses revealed that body dissociation and, to a much lesser extent, body awareness, accounted for 64.41% of the variance in self functioning and 55.75% of the variance in interpersonal functioning explained by childhood trauma.ConclusionBody connection appears to be an important mediator in the association between early trauma and impaired personality functioning, underscoring the need for interventions specifically targeting the avoidance and ignorance of signals from one's own body in individuals with traumatic childhood trauma.

Project description:BackgroundChildhood maltreatment, such as severe emotional, physical, and sexual abuse and neglect, has been linked to impulse control problems and dysfunctional emotional coping. In borderline personality disorder (BPD), a history of childhood maltreatment may worsen difficulties in emotion regulation, which may in turn give rise to impulsive behaviours. The aim of this self-report study was to investigate associations between childhood maltreatment severity, emotion regulation difficulties, and impulsivity in women with BPD compared to healthy and clinical controls.MethodsSixty-one female patients with BPD, 57 clinical controls (CC, women with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and/or Substance Use Disorder, without BPD), and 60 female healthy controls (HC) completed self-report scales on childhood trauma (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, CTQ), difficulties in emotion regulation (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, DERS), and impulsivity (UPPS Impulsive Behaviour Scale). A conditional process analysis was performed to investigate whether emotion dysregulation statistically mediated the effect of childhood maltreatment severity on impulsivity depending on group (BPD vs. CC vs. HC).ResultsChildhood maltreatment, particularly emotional maltreatment, was positively associated with impulsivity and emotion regulation difficulties across all groups. Difficulties in emotion regulation statistically mediated the effect of childhood maltreatment on impulsivity in BPD, but not in the other groups.ConclusionIn the context of current conceptualizations of BPD and previous research, findings suggest that problems with emotion regulation may be related to a history of childhood maltreatment, which may in turn enhance impulsivity. Targeting emotion dysregulation in psychotherapy and discussing it in relation to childhood maltreatment can help decreasing impulsive behaviors in individuals with BPD. Given the correlational design of our study which does not allow causal conclusions, future studies have to employ prospective, experimental designs and include larger sample sizes to corroborate associations between childhood maltreatment, emotion dysregulation, and impulsivity.