Multiple Types of Childhood Trauma and Borderline Personality Symptomatology Among a Sample of Diabetic Patients

Abstract

Trauma in childhood appears to demonstrate a correlation with borderline personality in adulthood, suggesting that this is one of possibly several contributory variables to the disorder. However, these correlations have only been studied in psychiatric populations. In the following study, the authors examined among diabetics (N = 35) four childhood trauma variables (i.e., sexual, physical, and emotional abuse; the witnessing of violence) and their relationship to responses on two self-report measures for borderline personality symptomatology (i.e., the borderline personality scale of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 and the Self-Harm Inventory). The number of self-reported abuses in childhood demonstrated robust correlations with both measures of borderline personality symptomatology. When comparing group differences between those with-versus those-without borderline personality symptomatology, there were no statistically significant differences for any of the three types of trauma, although clearly larger percentages of borderline patients reported such trauma, with the exception of witnessing violence. Potential implications of these findings are discussed.