Borderline Personality Features in Students: the Predicting Role of Schema, Emotion Regulation, Dissociative Experience and Suicidal Ideation

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies have demonstrated that early maladaptive schemas, emotional dysregulation are supposed to be the defining core of borderline personality disorder. Many studies have also found a strong association between the diagnosis of borderline personality and the occurrence of suicide ideation and dissociative symptoms. OBJECTIVES: The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between borderline personality features and schema, emotion regulation, dissociative experiences and suicidal ideation among high school students in Shiraz City, Iran. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this descriptive correlational study, 300 students (150 boys and 150 girls) were selected from the high schools in Shiraz, Iran, using the multi-stage random sampling. Data were collected using some instruments including borderline personality feature scale for children, young schema questionnaire-short form, difficulties in emotion-regulation scale (DERS), dissociative experience scale and beck suicide ideation scale. Data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate regression analysis. RESULTS: The results showed a significant positive correlation between schema, emotion regulation, dissociative experiences and suicide ideation with borderline personality features. Moreover, the results of multivariate regression analysis suggested that among the studied variables, schema was the most effective predicting variable of borderline features (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study are in accordance with findings from previous studies, and generally show a meaningful association between schema, emotion regulation, dissociative experiences, and suicide ideation with borderline personality features.