From categorical diagnosis to dimensional assessment of borderline personality

• Main Authors: Izabela Huczewska, Patrycja Didyk, Radosław Rogoza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Termedia Publishing House 2019-11-01
• Series: Current Issues in Personality Psychology
• Subjects: borderline personality; dsm-5; dimensional model of borderline personality; pid-5
• Online Access: https://www.termedia.pl/From-categorical-diagnosis-to-dimensional-assessment-of-borderline-personality,75,38573,1,1.html

Recent research suggested that personality disorders could be diagnosed as a continuous phenomenon. Therefore, in our study we examined whether the dimensional model of pathological personality traits could be applied to the assessment of borderline personality1. For this purpose, we modified an existing measure of borderline personality, the McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD), and scrutinized its psychometric properties (i.e., reliability, factorial structure, criterion validity). To assess criterion validity we calculated correlations with pathological personality traits. Our sample comprised 354 participants (67.8% women). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the modified MSI-BPD measures borderline per-sonality as a global construct, giving one-factor structure. The reliability of the measurement was excellent (α = .90). Moreover, we found positive associations between borderline personality and all five pathological person-ality traits, which supports the validity of the continuous assessment of borderline personality. Our findings sug-gest that the DSM-5 dimensional model may be applied in the assessment of borderline personality.