Identity and its relationship with borderline symptoms

Objectives Clinical and theoretical literature suggests that some people who present with psychological problems have a poorly developed sense of their own identity. It has also been suggested that cognitive theory and therapy does not always adequately identify, conceptualise, and address these identity problems. The current study aims to develop a self-report questionnaire measure to assess these identity problems. It also tests some specific hypotheses about the relationship between identity problems and other psychological constructs, including borderline personality disorder symptomatology, anxiety and depression. Design The study is a cross-sectional questionnaire study, using a within-subjects design, in a non-clinical population. Method The study was internet based and participants completed the questionnaire measures online. Questionnaires included the: new Identity Questionnaire; Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); Borderline Symptom List-23 (BSL-23); Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) and Socially Desirable Response Set (SDRS-5). Participants (N =535) completed the questionnaires as listed above and also provided demographic information on gender, age, occupation and education. Results Four coherent factors emerged from the exploratory factor analysis. These were examined to determine themes that characterised the items contained in them. The four subscales were respectively labelled as: no sense of self; self defined by social roles/context; internal regulation and lack of belonging/connectedness. The results suggested overall good convergent and divergent validity for the new Identity Questionnaire. Further analyses confirmed the predicted positive relationship between levels of borderline personality disorder symptomatology, anxiety and depression, and identity problems. Conclusion The results suggested that the Identity Questionnaire might be a useful clinical and research tool. Replication of this study, and extension to a clinical population, is recommended to further establish the validity and reliability of the questionnaire's psychometric properties.