Parental support, parental self-efficacy and borderline personality features in adolescents

BACKGROUND: Parenting an adolescent with borderline personality disorder (BPD) features can be challenging due to, for example, emotional dysregulation, impulsivity and/or self-destructive behavior. Parents confronted with challenging behavior of their child, may experience less parental-self-efficacy (PSE). Subsequently this lower PSE might strengthen the relationship between low parental support and BPD features. AIM: To increase our understanding of the association between parenting related factors and features of BPD in adolescents. METHOD: The sample consisted of 81 adolescents, in the age of 13-21, from a clinical population and their parents. Parents completed (online) questionnaires on parental self-efficacy and adolescents reported on parental support and BPD features. RESULTS: Adolescents who experienced lower parental support reported more BPD features. Lower parental self-efficacy was not related to BPD features in adolescence, but (more) self-efficacy was related to (older) age. Subsequently no evidence was found for a combined effect of perceived parental support and parental self-efficacy on adolescent BPD features. CONCLUSION: Adolescents in a clinical population with higher levels of BPD perceived lower levels of parental support. Parental self-efficacy was not related to levels of BPD. This research is a first step in understanding parenting related factors and BPD features. Longitudinal research is needed to gain more insight in transactions between parenting related factors and symptoms of adolescent BPD