Borderline personality disorder in adolescents: affective and cognitive features.
OBJECTIVE
To examine systematically the affective and cognitive features of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in adolescence, using standardized measures of these constructs and controlling for depression.


METHODS
Nineteen depressed female adolescents with BPD were compared with 21 non-BPD depressed inpatients on measures of affect and cognitive style.


RESULTS
Both BPD and non-BPD adolescents endorsed significantly elevated levels of self-reported depression, anger, anxiety, hopelessness, self-deprecatory attributional style, and external locus of control. Adolescents with BPD endorsed significantly poorer self-concept than their non-BPD peers; this difference was not an artifact of depressive severity.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings indicate that adolescents with BPD experience significant impairments in self-concept, suggestive of pervasive emptiness and identity disturbance associated with BPD.
Pinto
A
A
Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester, NY 14642, USA.
Grapentine
W L
WL
Francis
G
G
Picariello
C M
CM
D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D010343:Patient Admission; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics