Date of Award
Spring 4-13-2017
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology (PhD)
Department
Clinical Psychology
First Advisor/Committee Member
Amy Mezulis, PhD
Second Advisor/Committee Member
David Stewart, PhD
Third Advisor/Committee Member
Sheila Crowell, PhD
Abstract
The current study examined the relationship between emotional vulnerability, invalidation, and emotion dysregulation as they predicted borderline features in a community sample of young adolescents. Emotional vulnerability, as measured by trait negative affect (trait NA), as well as the psychophysiological component of basal vagal tone, as measured by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), were proposed as risk factors for borderline features. Emotion dysregulation as indexed both by psychophysiological indices (vagal tone in response to stress i.e., RSA reactivity) and self-report measures was hypothesized to function as a mediator between trait NA and borderline features. A moderated mediation model was then proposed with parental invalidation moderating the relationship between trait NA and emotion dysregulation. A total of 101 youth, 53% female, with a mean age of 12.82 (SD=0.83) completed a laboratory task to measure their RSA at rest and while completing a stressor task. Trait NA, parental invalidation, emotion dysregulation, and borderline features were assessed through self-report questionnaires. Support was found when models were assessed cross-sectionally, using self-report measures only. The direct effect of trait NA on borderline features was significantly mediated by emotion dysregulation. Furthermore parental invalidation did function as a moderator between trait NA and emotion dysregulation. The full moderated mediation model was also significant. When measured using psychophysiological indices, no relationship was found between any study variables. Results indicate that child temperament, specifically trait NA, and invalidating parenting interact to produce emotional dysregulation, which is related to increased borderline pathology among adolescents. However, the study did not implicate the involvement of physiological vulnerabilities and patterns of responding in the development of borderline features. This study suggests that understanding the risk for the development of borderline features in adolescence needs more rigorous and continued research, particularly in understanding the biological risk and role of psychophysiological responding to stress in the development of the disorder. Further exploration of how these variables are related will be important in understanding the etiology of borderline features across development.
Recommended Citation
Crystal, Sarah, "The Effect of Emotional Vulnerability and Invalidation on Emotion Dysregulation in Early Adolescence: An Empirical Investigation of Linehan’s Biosocial Theory of Borderline Personality Disorder" (2017). Clinical Psychology Dissertations. 22.
https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/cpy_etd/22
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