title: The Main and Interactive Effects of Maternal Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and Negative Affect on Adolescent Girls' Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms.
abstract: The transaction of adolescent's expressed negative affect and parental interpersonal emotion regulation are theoretically implicated in the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although problem solving and support/validation are interpersonal strategies that foster emotion regulation, little is known about whether these strategies are associated with less BPD severity among adolescents. Adolescent girls (age 16;N= 74) and their mothers completed a conflict discussion task, and maternal problem solving, support/validation, and girls' negative affect were coded. Girls' BPD symptoms were assessed at four time points. A 3-way interaction of girls' negative affect, problem solving, and support/validation indicated that girls' negative affect was only associated with BPD severity in the context of low maternal support/validation and high maternal problem solving. These variables did not predict changes in BPD symptoms over time. Although high negative affect is a risk for BPD severity in adolescent girls, maternal interpersonal emotion regulation strategies moderate this link. Whereas maternal problem solving coupled with low support/validation is associated with a stronger negative affect-BPD relation, maternal problem solving paired with high support/validation is associated with an attenuated relationship.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
authors.forename: Katherine L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Dixon-Gordon
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, Box 8511, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: Diana J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Whalen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 3811 O'Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
authors.forename: Lori N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, 1227 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
authors.forename: Nicole D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Cummins
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 3811 O'Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 3811 O'Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Stepp
keywords: Borderline personality disorder; Interpersonal emotion regulation; Mother; Parenting; adolescent conflict