Revista Brasileira de Terapias Cognitivas
Print version ISSN 1808-5687On-line version ISSN 1982-3746
Abstract
NUNES, Fábio Luiz; REZENDE, Helga Alessandra de; SILVA, Renata Saldanha and ALVES, Marcela Mansur. Traumatic events in childhood, impulsivity, and borderline personality disorder. Rev. bras.ter. cogn. [online]. 2015, vol.11, n.2, pp.68-76. ISSN 1808-5687. https://doi.org/10.5935/1808-5687.20150011.
This study aims to investigate if impulsivity trait and traumatic events in childhood - physical, emotional, and sexual abuse - are predictors of the typical symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder. The research was conducted by retrospective design, from an online survey, with a non-clinical sample of 748 participants, being 74.4% female, aged between 18 and 63 years old (mean=25.16, SD=6.95). The participants answered a sociodemographic and economic questionnaire; a questionnaire for Borderline personality disorder symptoms evaluation; the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11). Hierarchical Linear Regression analysis showed a strong influence from both, the impulsivity trait and emotional abuse during childhood, on the Borderline symptoms. These results are consistent with the newest theoretical models about predisposing factors to the Borderline Personality Disorder, which point out to the independent influence of individual vulnerabilities (such as impulsivity) and childhood trauma history in the development of the disorder in adulthood.
Keywords : Borderline personality disorder; Impulsivity; Child abuse.