Citation

De Moor MHM, Distel MA, Trull TJ, Boomsma DI. Psychol. Assess. 2009; 21(1): 125-130.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/a0014502

PMID

19290772

Abstract

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is more often diagnosed in women than in men, and symptoms tend to decline with age. Using a large community sample, the authors investigated whether sex and age differences in four main features of BPD, measured with the Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline Features scale (PAI-BOR; Morey, 1991), are a result of measurement bias or if they represent true differences. The PAI-BOR was completed by four Sex x Age groups (N = 6,838). Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis showed that the PAI-BOR is measurement invariant across sex and age. Compared with men, women reported more borderline characteristics for affective instability, identity problems, and negative relationships but not for self-harm. Younger men had higher scores for identity problems and self-harm than did older men. Younger women had higher scores for identity problems and affective instability than did older women.

RESULTS suggest that the PAI-BOR can be used to study the etiology of BPD features in population-based samples and to screen for BPD features in clinical settings in both men and women of varying ages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescent; Adult; Age Distribution; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Borderline Personality Disorder; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Netherlands; Personality Assessment; Reproducibility of Results; Sex Distribution; Young Adult