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First empirical evaluation of the link between attachment, social cognition and borderline features in adolescents

Sharp, C; Venta, A; Vanwoerden, S; Schramm, A; Ha, C; Newlin, E; Reddy, R; (2016) First empirical evaluation of the link between attachment, social cognition and borderline features in adolescents. Comprehensive Psychiatry , 64 pp. 4-11. 10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.07.008. Green open access

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Several developmental models of borderline personality disorder (BPD) emphasize the role of disrupted interpersonal relationships or insecure attachment. As yet, attachment quality and the mechanisms by which insecure attachment relates to borderline features in adolescents have not been investigated. In this study, we used a multiple mediational approach to examine the cross-sectional interplay between attachment, social cognition (in particular hypermentalizing), emotion dysregulation, and borderline features in adolescence, controlling for internalizing and externalizing symptoms. METHODS: The sample included 259 consecutive admissions to an adolescent inpatient unit (Mage=15.42, SD=1.43; 63.1% female). The Child Attachment Interview (CAI) was used to obtain a dimensional index of overall coherence of the attachment narrative. An experimental task was used to assess hypermentalizing, alongside self-report measures of emotion dyregulation and BPD. RESULTS: Our findings suggested that, in a multiple mediation model, hypermentalizing and emotion dysregulation together mediated the relation between attachment coherence and borderline features, but that this effect was driven by hypermentalizing; that is, emotion dysregulation failed to mediate the link between attachment coherence and borderline features while hypermentalizing demonstrated mediational effects. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides the first empirical evidence of well-established theoretical approaches to the development of BPD.

Type: Article
Title: First empirical evaluation of the link between attachment, social cognition and borderline features in adolescents
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.07.008
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.07.008
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. This manuscript version is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Non-derivative 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non-commercial use providing author and publisher attribution is clearly stated. Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0. Access may be initially restricted by the publisher.
Keywords: Borderline Personality Disorder, attachment, social cognition, hypermentalizing
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1476893
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