title: An 11-item measure to assess borderline traits in adolescents: refinement of the BPFSC using IRT.
abstract: Despite historical concerns about the validity of the construct of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in adolescence, there is now general consensus that BPD in adolescence constitutes a valid and reliable diagnosis. Yet the development and refinement of measures to assess borderline traits in adolescents is in its infancy. Moreover, brief and easy-to-administer measures of borderline traits for use in large-scale studies do not exist. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children (BPFSC; Crick, Murray-Close, & Woods, 2005) and develop a short version of the BPFSC through the use of item response theory (IRT) methods. BPFSC data from a community sample of 964 adolescents (mean age = 15.1 years, SD = .79; 55.9% female) were used to examine the factor structure of the BPFSC. The hypothesized 4-factor structure was not supported. The unidimensional IRT analysis showed instances of local dependence among item pairs and item responses that were not strongly related to the underlying construct. As a consequence, items were eliminated, creating a unidimensional 11-item brief BPFSC (the BPFSC-11). Next, evidence of construct validity of scores based on the shortened version was evaluated using a different sample of 371 inpatient adolescents. We demonstrated similar indices of construct validity as observed for the BPFSC total score with the BPFSC-11 scores and found evidence for good criterion validity. Use of the BPFSC-11 in clinical settings will reduce the burden on respondents without loss of information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sharp
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston.
authors.forename: Lynne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Steinberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Texas Medical Branch Health.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Temple
authors.affiliation: Adolescent Treatment Program, The Menninger Clinic.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Newlin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011594:Psychometrics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D063189:Symptom Assessment; D055815:Young Adult