Long-term stability of perceived childhood trauma in individuals with borderline personality disorder.

Background

The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) is a widely used tool for the retrospective assessment of childhood trauma (CT). However, evidence on its long-term stability remains limited, especially in diagnostically complex populations such as individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Given the disorder's characteristic emotional instability and altered self-perception, assessing the stability of CTQ scale scores in this group is particularly important.

Methods

In a longitudinal design, CTQ and the Borderline Symptom List-23 (BSL-23) scores were collected at two timepoints (T0: n = 417; T1: n = 195) from individuals with current or past BPD. The interval between assessments ranged from 4-11 years (mean 7.72 years).

Results

CTQ total scores showed excellent internal consistency (McDonald's ω = .95) and high long-term stability (intraclass correlation coefficient = .82), regardless of assessment interval. Subscale stabilities ranged from moderate to high (Sexual Abuse = .86; Physical Abuse = .81; Emotional Neglect = .77; Physical Neglect = .76; Emotional Abuse = .75). Changes in CTQ subscale scores showed small to moderate positive associations with changes in BPD symptom severity (β = .23 -.33), indicating that increases in perceived childhood trauma were accompanied by increases in symptom severity, except for Physical Neglect (β = .16, p = .078).

Conclusions

The CTQ scales demonstrated strong long-term stability over up to 11 years in a heterogeneous BPD sample. Individual changes in perceived childhood trauma were associated with corresponding changes in BPD symptom severity. These results support the CTQ's utility as a retrospective measure of childhood trauma.