The Impact of Emotion Regulation and Interpersonal Problems on Behavioral Dysregulation in a College Student Sample: An Investigation of the Mediating Role of Mentalizing

BPD is a heterogeneous disorder associated with a wide variety of symptoms (Yen et al., 2004). Acknowledging this heterogeneity, researchers have attempted to define core features that make up this disorder. Confirmatory factor analysis on a large sample of individuals diagnosed with BPD identifies affective dysregulation, disturbed relatedness, and behavioral dysregulation as three important aspects of BPD (Sanislow et al., 2002). Guided by a body of clinical and research literature on borderline personality disorder, this study utilized a college student sample to examine the relation between emotion regulation, interpersonal functioning, and behavioral dysregulation. This study also explores the process of mentalizing, and its relation to these variables. This study utilized a sample of 736 female college students to test the hypothesis that emotion dysregulation and interpersonal problems each mediated the relationship to behavioral dysregulation. A proxy of mentalizing was created by examining four overlapping constructs that have validated self-report measures (empathy, psychological mindedness, decentering, and affect consciousness), which was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between interpersonal problems and behavioral dysregulation. Results showed that emotion dysregulation mediated interpersonal problems and behavioral dysregulation, though interpersonal problems were not a significant mediator between emotion dysregulation and behavioral dysregulation. Mentalizing was not a significant mediator of interpersonal problems and behavioral dysregulation, though is was associated with behavioral dysregulation, BPD symptomatology, and avoidant attachment. These findings are consistent with past literature that suggests that emotion dysregulation is a core mechanism in BPD. The suitability of measuring mentalizing as a self-report measure is also discussed

Caregiver, Family System, and Environmental Predictors of Child Maltreatment: An Ecological Transactional Approach

This longitudinal study employed an ecological-transactional model to better understand how caregiver, family system, and neighborhood factors contribute to child maltreatment. The study was designed to examine whether there were caregiver, family system, and environmental risk factors that distinguished children who have experienced maltreatment from children who have not, and whether these risk factors alone and in concert affected later child psychological development. Participants included 1,435 children and their families who were followed longitudinally when the children were ages 0-3, 4, 6 and 8. Two models of the relationship between child maltreatment, caregiver social support, family functioning and later psychological functioning were examined: 1) an independent path model that examined caregiver social support and family functioning at age 6 and their effects on child psychological well-being at age 6 and 8 and 2) a meditational model that examined the additional path of family functioning as a partial mediator of age 4 maltreatment status and age 8 child psychological well-being. The independent path model was determined to be a better fit. Research and clinical implications of the influence of environmental factors on the occurrence of child maltreatment and child psychological well-being are discussed