Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T09:50:56.884Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Stability, change, and heritability of borderline personality disorder traits from adolescence to adulthood: A longitudinal twin study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2009

Marina A. Bornovalova*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Brian M. Hicks
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
William G. Iacono
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Matt McGue
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Marina A. Bornovalova, Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, 75 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455; E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

Although personality disorders are best understood in the context of lifetime development, there is a paucity of work examining their longitudinal trajectory. An understanding of the expected course and the genetic and environmental contributions to these disorders is necessary for a detailed understanding of risk processes that lead to their manifestation. The current study examined the longitudinal course and heritability of borderline personality disorder (BPD) over a period of 10 years starting in adolescence (age 14) and ending in adulthood (age 24). In doing so, we built on existing research by using a large community sample of adolescent female twins, a sensitive dimensional measure of BPD traits, an extended follow-up period, and a longitudinal twin design that allowed us to investigate the heritability of BPD traits at four discrete ages spanning midadolescence to early adulthood. Results indicated that mean-level BPD traits significantly decline from adolescence to adulthood, but rank order stability remained high. BPD traits were moderately heritable at all ages, with a slight trend for increased heritability from age 14 to age 24. A genetically informed latent growth curve model indicated that both the stability and change of BPD traits are highly influenced by genetic factors and modestly by nonshared environmental factors. Our results indicate that as is the case for other personality dimensions, trait BPD declines as individuals mature from adolescence to adulthood, and that this process is influenced in part by the same genetic factors that influence BPD trait stability.

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association. (1987). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed., rev.). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Bergen, S. E., Gardner, C. O., & Kendler, K. S. (2007). Age-related changes in heritability of behavioral phenotypes over adolescence and young adulthood: A meta-analysis. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 10, 423433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernstein, D. P., Cohen, P., Velez, C. N., Schwabstone, M., Siever, L. J., & Shinsato, L. (1993). Prevalence and stability of the DSM-III-R personality disorders in a community-based survey of adolescents. American Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 12371243.Google Scholar
Blonigen, D. M., Carlson, M. D., Hicks, B. M., Krueger, R. F., & Iacono, W. G. (2008). Stability and change in personality traits from late adolescence to early adulthood: A longitudinal twin study. Journal of Personality, 76, 229266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bornovalova, M. A., Hicks, B. M., Patrick, C., Iacono, W. G., & McGue, M. (2009). Development and validation of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire Borderline Personality Disorder Scale (MPQ-BPD). Manuscript submitted for publication.Google Scholar
Bunce, S. C., & Coccaro, E. (1999). Factors differentiating personality-disordered individuals with and without a history of unipolar mood disorder. Depression and Anxiety, 10, 147157.3.0.CO;2-I>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, S. R., & Iacono, W. G. (2006). Heritability of P300 amplitude development from adolescence to adulthood. Psychophysiology, 43, 470480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caspi, A., Roberts, B. W., & Shiner, R. L. (2005). Personality development: Stability and change. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 453484.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chanen, A. M., Jackson, H. J., McGorry, P. D., Allot, K. A., Clarkson, V., & Yuen, H. P. (2004). Two-year stability of personality disorder in older adolescent outpatients. Journal of Personality Disorders, 18, 526541.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Charney, D. S. (2004). Psychobiological and vulnerability: Implications for successful adaptation to extreme stress. American Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 195216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cicchetti, D. (1984). The emergence of developmental psychopathology. Child Development, 55, 17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cicchetti, D. (1990). An historical perspective on the discipline of developmental psychopathology. In Rolf, J., Masten, A., Cicchetti, D., Nuechterlein, K., & Weintraub, S. (Eds.), Risk and protective factors in the development of psychopathology (pp. 228). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Curtis, W. J. (2007). Multilevel perspectives on pathways to resilient functioning. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 627629.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cicchetti, D., & Garmezy, N. (1993). Prospects and promises in the study of resilience. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 497502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Gunnar, M. R. (2008). Integrating biological measures into the design and evaluation of preventive interventions. Development and Psychopathology, 20, 737743.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cicchetti, D., & Rogosch, F. A. (2002). A developmental psychopathology perspective on adolescence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 620.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cicchetti, D., Rogosch, F. A., & Sturge-Apple, M. L. (2007). Interactions of child maltreatment and serotonin transporter and monoamine oxidase A polymorphisms: Depressive symptomatology among adolescents from low socioeconomic status backgrounds. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 11611180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, L. A. (2009). Stability and change in personality disorder. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 2731.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coolidge, F. L., Thede, L. L., & Jang, K. L. (2001). Heritability of personality disorders in childhood: A preliminary investigation. Journal of Personality Disorders, 15, 3340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crick, N. R., Murray-Close, D., & Woods, K. (2005). Borderline personality features in childhood: A short-term longitudinal study. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 10511070.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Curtis, W. J., & Cicchetti, D. (2007). Emotion and resilience: A multilevel investigation of hemispheric electroencephalogram asymmetry and emotion regulation in maltreated and nonmaltreated children. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 811840.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DiRago, A. C., Hicks, B., & Iacono, W. G. (2009). Age of onset of major depressive disorder and personality trajectories from late-childhood to early adulthood. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Distel, M. A., Trull, T. J., Derom, C. A., Thiery, E. W., Grimmer, M. A., Martin, N. G., et al. (2008). Heritability of borderline personality disorder features is similar across three countries. Psychological Medicine, 38, 12191229.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dougherty, D. M., Bjork, J. M., Huckabee, H. C. G., Moeller, F. G., & Swann, A. C. (1999). Laboratory measures of aggression and impulsivity in women with borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Research, 85, 315326.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edens, J. F., Marcus, D. K., & Ruiz, M. A. (2008). Taxometric analyses of borderline personality features in a large-scale male and female offender sample. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 705711.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enders, C. K., & Bandalos, D. L. (2001). The relative performance of full information maximum likelihood estimation for missing data in structural equation models. Structural Equation Modeling, 8, 430457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankenburg, F. R., & Zanarini, M. C. (2004). The association between borderline personality disorder and chronic medical illnesses, poor health-related lifestyle choices, and costly forms of health care utilization. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 65, 16601665.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fruzzetti, A. E., Shenk, C., & Hoffman, P. D. (2005). Family interaction and the development of borderline personality disorder: A transactional model. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 10071030.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iacono, W. G., Carlson, S. R., Taylor, J., Elkins, I. J., & McGue, M. (1999). Behavioral disinhibition and the development of substance-case disorders: Findings from the Minnesota Twin Family Study. Development and Psychopathology, 11, 869900.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobson, K. C., Prescott, C. A., & Kendler, K. S. (2002). Sex differences in the genetic and environmental influences on the development of antisocial behavior. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 395416.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jang, K. L., & Livesley, W. J. (1999). Why do measures of normal and disordered personality correlate? A study of genetic comorbidity. Journal of Personality Disorders, 13, 1017.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jang, K. L., Livesley, W. J., Vernon, P. A., & Jackson, D. N. (1996). Heritability of personality disorder traits: A twin study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 94, 438444.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, J. G., Cohen, P., Kasen, S., Skodol, A. E., Hamagami, F., & Brook, J. S. (2000). Age-related change in personality disorder trait levels between early adolescence and adulthood: A community-based longitudinal investigation. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 102, 265275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, W., Hicks, B. M., McGue, M., & Iacono, W. G. (2007). Most of the girls are alright but some aren't: Personality trajectory groups from ages 14 to 24 and some associations with outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Personality Processes and Individual Differences, 93, 266284.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, W., McGue, M., & Iacono, W. G. (2006). Genetic and environmental influences on academic achievement trajectories during adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 42, 514532.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, K. S., Aggen, S. H., Czajkowski, N., Roysamb, E., Tambs, K., Torgersen, S., et al. (2008). The structure of genetic and environmental risk factors for DSM-IV personality disorders: A Multivariate Twin Study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65, 14381446.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim-Cohen, J., Moffitt, T. E., Taylor, A., Pawlby, S. J., & Caspi, A. (2005). Maternal depression and children's antisocial behavior—Nature and nurture effects. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 173181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koenig, L. B., McGue, M., Krueger, R. F., & Bouchard, T. J. (2005). Genetic and environmental influences on religiousness: Findings for retrospective and current religiousness ratings. Journal of Personality, 73, 471488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lejuez, C., Daughters, S., Nowak, J., Lynch, T., Rosenthal, M., & Kosson, D. (2003). Examining the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems as a tool for conducting analogue studies of mechanisms underlying borderline personality disorder. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 34, 313324.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lenzenweger, M. F. (1999). Stability and change in personality disorder features—The longitudinal study of personality disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 56, 10091015.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lenzenweger, M. F., & Castro, D. D. (2005). Predicting change in borderline personality: Using neurobehavioral systems indicators within an individual growth curve framework. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 12071237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lenzenweger, M. F., & Cicchetti, D. (2005). Toward a developmental psychopathology approach to borderline personality disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 893898.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Links, P. S., Heslegrave, R. J., Mitton, J. E., van Reekum, R., & Patrick, J. (1995). Borderline personality disorder and substance abuse: Consequences of comorbidity. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 40, 914.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Little, R. T. A., & Rubin, D. B. (1987). Statistical analysis with missing data. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Livesley, W. J., Jang, K. L., Jackson, D. N., & Vernon, P. A. (1993). Genetic and environmental contributions to dimensions of personality-disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 18261831.Google ScholarPubMed
Livesley, W. J., Jang, K. L., & Vernon, P. A. (1998). Phenotypic and genetic structure of traits delineating personality disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 55, 941948.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ludolph, P. S., Westen, D., Misle, B., Jackson, A., Wixom, J., & Wiss, F. C. (1990). The borderline diagnosis in adolescents: Symptoms and developmental history. American Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 470476.Google ScholarPubMed
Markon, K. E., Krueger, R. F., & Watson, D. (2005). Delineating the structure of normal and abnormal personality: An integrative hierarchical approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 139157.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Markon, K. E., Krueger, R. F., Bouchard, T. J., & Gottesman, I. I. (2002). Normal and abnormal personality traits: Evidence for genetic and environmental relationships in the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart. Journal of Personality, 70, 661693.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Matheny, A. P. (1989). Childrens behavioral inhibition over age and across situations—Genetic similarity for a trait during change. Journal of Personality, 57, 215235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mattanah, J. J. F., Becker, D. F., Levy, K. N., Edell, W. S., & McGlashan, T. H. (1995). Diagnostic stability in adolescents followed up 2 years after hospitalization. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 889894.Google ScholarPubMed
McGue, M., Bacon, S., & Lykken, D.T. (1993). Personality stability and change in early adulthood: A behavioral genetic analysis. Developmental Psychology, 29, 96109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGue, M., & Christensen, K. (2003). The heritability of depression symptoms in elderly Danish twins: Occasion-specific versus general effects. Behavior Genetics, 33, 8393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meijer, M., Goedhart, A. W., & Treffers, P. D. A. (1998). The persistence of borderline personality disorder in adolescence. Journal of Personality Disorders, 12, 1322.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miles, D. R., & Carey, G. (1997). Genetic and environmental architecture of human aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 207217.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morey, L. C. (1991). Personality Assessment Inventory: Professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.Google Scholar
Neale, M. C., & McArdle, J. J. (2000). Structured latent growth curves for twin data. Twin Research, 3, 165177.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neale, M. C., Boker, S. M., Xie, G., & Maes, H. H. (1999). Mx: Statistical modeling (5th ed.). Charleston, SC: Medical College of South Carolina, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Newman, D. A. (2003). Longitudinal modeling with randomly and systematically missing data: A simulation of ad hoc, maximum likelihood, and multiple imputation techniques. Organizational Research Methods, 6, 328362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, B. P. (2002). The search for dimensional structure differences between normality and abnormality: A statistical review of published data on personality and psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 962982.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Connor, B. P., & Dyce, J. A. (2001). Rigid and externe: A geometric representation of personality disorders in five-factor model space. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 11191130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oltmanns, T. F., & Turkheimer, E. (2009). Person perception and personality pathology. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 3236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paris, J., Brown, R., & Nowlis, D. (1987). Long-term follow-up of borderline patients in a general hospital. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 28, 530535.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts, B. W., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2001). The kids are alright: Growth and stability in personality development from adolescence to adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 670683.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts, B. W., & DelVecchio, W. F. (2000). The rank-order consistency of personality traits from childhood to old age: A quantitative review of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006). Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rothschild, L., Cleland, C., Haslam, N., & Zimmerman, M. (2003). A taxometric study of borderline personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 657666.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shea, M. T., Stout, R., Gunderson, J., Morey, L. C., Grilo, C. M., McGlashan, T., et al. (2002). Short-term diagnostic stability of schizotypal, borderline, avoidant, and obsessive–compulsive personality disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 20362041.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Siever, L. J., Torgersen, S., Gunderson, J. G., Livesley, W. J., & Kendler, K. S. (2002). The borderline diagnosis III: Identifying endophenotypes for genetic studies. Biological Psychiatry, 51, 964968.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skodol, A. E., Gunderson, J. G., Pfohl, B., Widiger, T. A., Livesley, W. J., & Siever, L. J. (2002). The borderline diagnosis I: Psychopathology, comorbidity, and personality structure. Biological Psychiatry, 51, 936950.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skodol, A. E., Oldham, J. M., Bender, D. S., Dyck, I. R., Stout, R. L., Morey, L. C., et al. (2005). Dimensional representations of DSM-IV personality disorders: Relationships to functional impairment. American Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 19191925.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sroufe, L. A. (1990). Considering normal and abnormal together: The essence of developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 2, 335347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stattin, H., & Magnusson, D. (1996). Antisocial development: A holistic approach. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 617645.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tellegen, A. (1982). Brief manual for the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. Unpublished manuscript, University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Tellegen, A., & Waller, N. G. (2008). Exploring personality through test construction: Development of the multidimensional personality questionnaire. In Boyle, G. J., Matthews, G., & Saklofske, D. H. (Eds.), Handbook of personality theory and testing. Personality measurement and assessment (Vol. 2, pp. 261292). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Tellegen, A., Lykken, D. T., Bouchard, T. J. Jr., Wilcox, K., Segal, N., & Rich, S. (1988). Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 10311039.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torgersen, S. (1984). Genetic and nosological aspects of schizotypal and borderline personality-disorders: A twin study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 546554.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torgersen, S., Czajkowski, N., Jacobson, K., Reichborn-Kjennerud, T., Roysamb, E., Neale, M. C., et al. (2008). Dimensional representations of DSM-IV cluster B personality disorders in a population-based sample of Norwegian twins: A multivariate study. Psychological Medicine, 38, 16171625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torgersen, S., Lygren, S., Oien, P. A., Skre, I., Onstad, S., Edvardsen, J., et al. (2000). A twin study of personality disorders. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 41, 416425.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trull, T. J., Sher, K. J., Minks-Brown, C., Durbin, J., & Burr, R. (2000). Borderline personality disorder and substance use disorders: A review and integration. Clinical Psychology Review, 20, 235253.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trull, T. J., Widiger, T. A., Lynam, D. R., & Costa, P. T. (2003). Borderline personality disorder from the perspective of general personality functioning. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 193202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitelaw, N. C., & Whitelaw, E. (2006). How lifetimes shape epigenotype within and across generations. Human Molecular Genetics, 1(Spec. No. 2), R131R137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilberg, T., Urnes, O., Friis, S., Pedersen, G., & Karterud, S. (1999). Borderline and avoidant personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality: A comparison between DSM-IV diagnoses and NEO-PI-R. Journal of Personality Disorders, 13, 226240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wonderlich, S. A., Swift, W. J., Slotnick, H. B., & Goodman, S. (1990). DSM-III-R personality disorders in eating-disorder subtypes. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 9, 607616.3.0.CO;2-0>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zanarini, M. C., Frankenburg, F. R., Dubo, E. D., Sickel, A. E., Trikha, A., Levin, A., et al. (1998a). Axis II comorbidity of borderline personality disorder. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 39, 296302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zanarini, M. C., Frankenburg, F. R., Dubo, E. D., Sickel, A. E., Trikha, A., Levin, A., et al. (1998b). Axis I comorbidity of borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 17331739.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zanarini, M. C., Frankenburg, F. R., Hennen, J., & Silk, K. R. (2003). The longitudinal course of borderline psychopathology: 6-year prospective follow-up of the phenomenology of borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 274283.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zanarini, M. C., Williams, A. A., Lewis, R. E., Reich, R. B., Vera, S. C., Marino, M. F., et al. (1997). Reported pathological childhood experiences associated with the development of borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 11011106.Google ScholarPubMed