Borderline Features, Depression, and Anxiety in Non-clinical Young Adults: The Mediating Roles of Contingencies of Self-Worth and Emotion Dysregulation

Borderline personality disorder and its varied manifestations cause subjective distress and lead to various psychopathological manifestations, such as depression and anxiety. Nevertheless, the relationship between these variables and how they are linked has been rarely studied in the general population. The aim of this study was to analyze the mediating role of contingencies of self-worth and emotional dysregulation in the relationship between borderline personality features and depression, respectively anxiety in a non-clinical sample of young adults. Two hundred non-clinical participants answered a self-report questionnaire. Borderline personality features correlated significantly with depression and anxiety. The relationship with anxiety was mediated by emotional dysregulation, while the association with depression was mediated by both a self-worth contingent on the approval of others, as well as by emotional dysregulation. This study reinforces previous findings that borderline personality features are related to depression and anxiety, while also highlighting the importance of emotional dysregulation and contingencies of self-worth as explanatory variables in a non-clinical sample. The results also show the need for psychotherapeutic interventions that tackle both variables at once.