Borderline personality traits and ego-resiliency and self-evaluated defense styles in university students

This study examined the relation between borderline personality traits and ego-resiliency and self-evaluated defense styles in a sample of 278 university students. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing borderline personality traits, ego-resiliency, defense styles. On the basis of their scores for borderline personality traits, they were divided into three groups: high, middle, and low. The results showed that the high group scored significantly higher on the CAQ-Ego- Resiliency Scale than the middle or low group did. Further, the high group had significantly lower scores on the \u22control of self\u22 factor of the Defense Style Questionnaire-42 but significantly higher scores on \u22failure to control self\u22 factor of this scale than the other two groups. Borderline personality traits were significantly correlated with devaluation, which is a feature of \u27image distorting\u27, marker for borderline personality disorder. Further research is needed to confirm the validity of factors of the Defense Styles Questionnaire-42 and to explore how the present results regarding ego-resiliency and defense styles can be utilized in psychotherapy for university students with a high level of borderline personality traits