Protective factors in borderline personality disorder: A multi-study analysis of conscientiousness, distress tolerance, and self-compassion.

BACKGROUND

Despite a growing literature characterizing risk factors associated with the development and maintenance of borderline personality disorder (BPD), substantially less is known about potentially protective factors in BPD.

METHODS

In a sample of online (N = 272) participants with likely BPD, major depressive disorder (MDD), or no disorder (ND) and an independent sample of in-person (N = 90) participants diagnosed with BPD, MDD, or ND, we tested the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations among BPD features and three putatively protective personality, cognitive, and affective-behavioral factors: conscientiousness, self-compassion, and distress tolerance.

RESULTS

Only conscientiousness was significantly lower in BPD than MDD (ds: .67-.73) across both studies and more strongly related to BPD features (rs: -.68 to -.59) than MDD symptoms (rs: -.49 to -.43) in dimensional analyses across both studies. However, in a multiple regression analysis including all three factors in Study 1, only self-compassion predicted decreases in BPD features (β = -.28) and MDD symptoms (β = -.21) over one month.

LIMITATIONS: Study 1 participants completed all measures online and exhibited some differential attrition at one month follow-up. Study 2 participants were all diagnosed by one trained assessor and the smaller sample size limited our power to detect effects.

CONCLUSIONS

Low conscientiousness may be most strongly related to BPD, whereas self-compassion may be a prospective transdiagnostic protective factor.