TY - JOUR
T1 - Maladaptive behaviours in adolescence and their associations with personality traits, emotion dysregulation and other clinical features in a sample of Italian students
T2 - a cross-sectional study
AU - Lanfredi, Mariangela
AU - Macis, Ambra
AU - Ferrari, Clarissa
AU - Meloni, Serena
AU - Pedrini, Laura
AU - Ridolfi, Maria Elena
AU - Zonca, Valentina
AU - Cattane, Nadia
AU - Cattaneo, Anna
AU - Rossi, Roberta
N1 - Funding Information:
Support for this study was provided by the Italian Ministry of Health with Ricerca Corrente and 5 × 1000 funds (2017).
Funding Information:
We would like to express our gratitude for their collaboration to the following schools located in Brescia (Italy): Liceo Scientifico Moretti (Gardone Val Trompia), Istituto Maddalena di Canossa, Liceo delle scienze umane Fabrizio De Andr?, and Liceo Veronica Gambara. We wish to thank all the students who volunteered to participate to the study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Background: Emotion Dysregulation (ED), childhood trauma and personality are linked to the occurrence of maladaptive behaviours in adolescence which, in turn, may be related to increased risk for psychopathology in the life course. We sought to explore the relationship among the occurrence of different clusters of maladaptive behaviours and ED, clinical features (i.e. impulsivity, childhood maltreatment, anxiety, depressive symptoms) and personality traits that have been found to be associated to Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), in a sample of 179 adolescent students. Methods: Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) was applied to detect clustered types of maladaptive behaviours and groups of students were defined as individuals engaging in these clustered behaviours (non-suicidal self-injury-NSSI, binge eating, binge drinking, cannabis use, and sexual risk behaviours). Logistic models were used to evaluate the association among clinical scales, and student groups. Mediation analysis was used to evaluate whether clinical features affected the association between personality traits and student groups. Results: MCA analysis allowed to identify three student groups: NSSI/binge eating (NSSI-BE) behaviours, other maladaptive behaviours and “none”. Higher scores in ED, impulsivity, childhood maltreatment, anxiety and depressive symptoms increased the risk of belonging to the cluster of NSSI-BE behaviours compared to the other two groups. ED, depression and anxiety symptoms were found to be mediators of the relationship between specific personality traits, mainly pertaining to the negative affectivity construct, and NSSI/BE. Conclusions: Individuals engaging in NSSI-BE behaviours represent a vulnerable adolescent population. ED, depression and anxiety were mediators of the relationship between a variety of personality traits related to BPD and NSSI and binge eating behaviours. Findings have important clinical implications in terms of prevention and interventions among adolescents engaging in self-damaging behaviours.
AB - Background: Emotion Dysregulation (ED), childhood trauma and personality are linked to the occurrence of maladaptive behaviours in adolescence which, in turn, may be related to increased risk for psychopathology in the life course. We sought to explore the relationship among the occurrence of different clusters of maladaptive behaviours and ED, clinical features (i.e. impulsivity, childhood maltreatment, anxiety, depressive symptoms) and personality traits that have been found to be associated to Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), in a sample of 179 adolescent students. Methods: Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) was applied to detect clustered types of maladaptive behaviours and groups of students were defined as individuals engaging in these clustered behaviours (non-suicidal self-injury-NSSI, binge eating, binge drinking, cannabis use, and sexual risk behaviours). Logistic models were used to evaluate the association among clinical scales, and student groups. Mediation analysis was used to evaluate whether clinical features affected the association between personality traits and student groups. Results: MCA analysis allowed to identify three student groups: NSSI/binge eating (NSSI-BE) behaviours, other maladaptive behaviours and “none”. Higher scores in ED, impulsivity, childhood maltreatment, anxiety and depressive symptoms increased the risk of belonging to the cluster of NSSI-BE behaviours compared to the other two groups. ED, depression and anxiety symptoms were found to be mediators of the relationship between specific personality traits, mainly pertaining to the negative affectivity construct, and NSSI/BE. Conclusions: Individuals engaging in NSSI-BE behaviours represent a vulnerable adolescent population. ED, depression and anxiety were mediators of the relationship between a variety of personality traits related to BPD and NSSI and binge eating behaviours. Findings have important clinical implications in terms of prevention and interventions among adolescents engaging in self-damaging behaviours.
KW - Adolescents
KW - Borderline personality disorder
KW - Depression
KW - Emotion dysregulation
KW - Maladaptive behaviours
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105215896&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s40479-021-00154-w
DO - 10.1186/s40479-021-00154-w
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85105215896
SN - 2051-6673
VL - 8
JO - Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation
JF - Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation
IS - 1
M1 - 14
ER -