Presenter(s): Alex Boxberger—Psychology
Faculty Mentor(s): Maureen Zalewski, Jackie O’Brien
Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a psychological disorder characterized by impulsivity, negative affect, and emotional and interpersonal dysregulation, both of which can directly impact the experience of being a parent . The purpose of this study was to further understand the pathway through which elevated symptoms of maternal BPD are associated with higher levels of externalizing problems in their children . Specifically, we investigated whether maternal warmth and parenting stress mediated this relationship to transfer risk of mental health difficulties . The participants in this study included 68 mothers and their 3-4 year old children (M= 48, SD= 7 .6 months) . Maternal BPD symptoms, parenting stress, and child externalizing problems were assessed through maternal report, while maternal warmth was assessed using observational measures during a dyadic stressor task . Results support that elevated maternal BPD symptoms are associated with higher levels of child externalizing problems, as well as with higher levels of parenting stress . However, elevated maternal BPD symptoms were not associated with lower levels of maternal warmth . Additionally, higher levels of parenting stress did not explain the association between maternal BPD symptoms and child externalizing problems . These findings suggest that maternal BPD symptoms confer risk of mental health difficulties in children, and that interventions targeting maternal BPD symptoms may be more effective in mitigating this risk than parenting interventions designed to improve warmth .