Longitudinal association of distress tolerance with borderline and antisocial personality traits in a substance use treatment sample attempting sobriety.

Distress tolerance (DT) is thought to be a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology, especially borderline (BPD) and antisocial personality disorders (ASPD). However, most of the studies documenting the relationship of DT with BPD and ASPD have been cross-sectional, with few examining basic longitudinal patterns of change or interrelationships of these constructs. The present study examined longitudinal patterns of change and prospective reciprocal associations of DT with BPD and ASPD-related pathological personality traits (PPTs) in an adult clinical sample (N = 354) receiving inpatient treatment for substance use disorders and then reintegrating into the community across five time points (baseline, posttreatment, 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-up). Results indicated high rank-order stability for DT and all PPTs, with significant mean level changes between baseline and follow-ups. Eleven bivariate random intercept cross-lagged panel models were fitted for the association of DT with PPTs. Within-person autoregressive effects were generally nonsignificant during treatment up until the posttreatment period but became significant during the community follow-up for both PPTs and DT. Within-person cross-lagged effects were generally nonsignificant, with only four brief and isolated reciprocal associations observed across disinhibition- and antagonism-related PPT models. Significant concurrent associations were replicated at both the within-person and between-person levels. These findings add to the limited literature on the longitudinal dynamics of DT and PPTs in clinical populations. They also underscore the potential value of targeting DT in interventions aimed at reducing emotional and behavioral dysregulation during the transition from treatment to community settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).