Moderating effects of emotion regulation strategies on borderline personality symptoms in young adults with adverse childhood experiences

Abstract

ABSTRACTYoung adults who have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are at increased risk for developing symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD), yet many young adults with ACE exposures do not develop BPD symptoms. As emotion regulation strategies are implicated in BPD symptoms, this study aims to understand the moderating effects of two emotion regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, regarding the association between ACEs and BPD. Linear regression analyses examined both self-reported cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression as moderators in the relationship between ACEs and BPD symptoms in a community-based sample of young adults aged 18–25 years old (n = 172). Childhood adversity was examined at different levels of exposure, in terms of no exposure, exposure to a single ACE, and exposure to multiple ACEs. There was no significant moderation by expressive suppression; however, a significant moderation effect was observed between multiple exposures and cognitive reappraisal. The relationship between multiple exposures to ACEs and BPD symptoms was significant at low levels of reappraisal, with the severity of BPD symptoms significantly decreasing at average and higher levels of reappraisal. These results indicate that cognitive reappraisal may act as a protective strategy against experiencing BPD symptoms despite multiple ACE exposures.

Keywords

• Borderline personality disorder
• adverse childhood experiences
• emotion regulation
• childhood trauma
• young adults