The Relationship of Emotional Child Abuse, Borderline Personality, and Self-harm Behavior with the Mediating Role of Object Relation in Female Adolescents

Today, the borderline personality disorder has become highly prevalent among adolescents. Its relationship with the incidence of self-harm behaviors has augmented its importance. Thus, in the present article, we aimed to answer the question of what the relationship is of emotional abuse, borderline personality, and self-harm behavior with the mediating role of object relation in female adolescents.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 285 female students in Qazvin, Iran in the academic year of 2020-2021. Seven female middle schools were randomly chosen for sample collection. Child Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) Scale, Object Relations Inventory, Leichsenring Borderline Personality Disorder Questionnaire, and Klonsky & Glenn Self-injurious Behavior Questionnaire were used to collect data from the participants. Finally, the data were entered into SPSS software version 25, and Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression were utilized to analyze them.

The findings indicated the bivariate correlation of emotional abuse, object relations, and borderline personality with self-harm (r=-0.10, P=0.04, r=-0.47, P=0.001, and r=-0.47, P=0.001, respectively). Standardized coefficients of effects, object relations (β=0.47, P=0.001), borderline syndrome (β=0.28, P=0.003), and emotional abuse (β=-0.10, P=0.046) showed the most significant effects. The mediating role of object relations in this study was also confirmed.

Our results revealed a relationship between borderline personality disorder and self-harm behavior in female adolescents. Object relations can also greatly eliminate the effect of borderline personality disorder on self-harm.