Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T00:54:37.332Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Borderline personality features as a predictor of forms and functions of aggression during middle childhood: Examining the roles of gender and physiological reactivity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Adrienne M. Banny ,
Wan-Ling Tseng ,
Dianna Murray-Close ,
Clio E. Pitula  and
Nicki R. Crick
Adrienne M. Banny*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Wan-Ling Tseng
Affiliation:
National Institute of Mental Health
Dianna Murray-Close
Affiliation:
University of Vermont
Clio E. Pitula
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Nicki R. Crick
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Adrienne M. Banny, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, 51 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455; E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The present longitudinal investigation examined borderline personality features as a predictor of aggression 1 year later. Moderation by physiological reactivity and gender was also explored. One hundred ninety-six children (M = 10.11 years, SD = 0.64) participated in a laboratory stress protocol in which their systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and skin conductance reactivity to recounting a relational stressor (e.g., threats to relationships or exclusion) were assessed. Teachers provided reports on subtypes of aggressive behavior (i.e., reactive relational, proactive relational, reactive physical, and proactive physical), and children completed a self-report measure of borderline personality features. Path analyses indicated that borderline personality features predicted increases in reactive relational aggression and proactive relational aggression among girls who evinced heightened physiological reactivity to interpersonal stress. In contrast, borderline personality features predicted decreases in proactive physical aggression in girls. Findings suggest that borderline personality features promote engagement in relationally aggressive behaviors among girls, particularly in the context of emotional dysregulation.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 26 , Special Issue 3: The Legacy of Nicki R. Crick's Contributions to Developmental Psychopathology , August 2014 , pp. 789 - 804
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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

Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood, NJ: Prentice–Hall.Google Scholar
Berkowitz, L. (1989). The frustration-aggression hypothesis: Examination and reformulation. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 59–73. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.106.1.59 Google Scholar
Bollmer, J. M., Harris, M. J., & Milich, R. (2006). Reactions to bullying and peer victimization: Narratives, physiological arousal, and personality. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 803–828. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2005.09.003 Google Scholar
Broidy, L. M., Nagin, D. S., Tremblay, R. E., Bates, J. E., Brame, B., Dodge, K. A., et al. (2003). Developmental trajectories of childhood disruptive behaviors and adolescent delinquency: A six-site, cross-national study. Developmental Psychology, 39, 222–245. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.39.2.222 Google Scholar
Card, N. A., & Little, T. D. (2006). Proactive and reactive aggression in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analysis of differential relations with psychosocial adjustment. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 30, 466–480. doi:10.1177/0165025406071904 Google Scholar
Card, N. A., Stucky, B. D., Sawalani, G. M., & Little, T. D. (2008). Direct and indirect aggression during childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic review of gender differences, intercorrelations, and relations to maladjustment. Child Development, 79, 1185–1229. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01184.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chang, B., Sharp, C., & Ha, C. (2011). The criterion validity of the Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children in an adolescent inpatient setting. Journal of Personality Disorders, 25, 492–503. doi:10.1521/pedi.2011.25.4.492 Google Scholar
Cherek, D. R., & Dougherty, D. M. (1997). The relationship between provocation frequency and human aggressive responding. Psychopharmacology, 111, 163–168.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Toth, S. L. (2009). The past achievements and future promises of developmental psychopathology: The coming of age of a discipline. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50, 16–25. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.01979.x Google Scholar
Cillessen, A. H. N., Jiang, X. L., West, T. V., & Laszkowski, D. K. (2005). Predictors of dyadic friendship quality in adolescence. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 29, 165–172. doi:10.1080/01650250444000360 Google Scholar
Cillessen, A. H. N., & Mayeux, L. (2004). From censure to reinforcement: Developmental changes in the association between aggression and social status. Child Development, 75, 147–163. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00660.x Google Scholar
Crapanzano, A. M., Frick, P. J., & Terranova, A. M. (2010). Patterns of physical and relational aggression in a school-based sample of boys and girls. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38, 433–445. doi:10.1007/s10802-009-9376-3 Google Scholar
Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1996). Social information-processing mechanisms in reactive and proactive aggression. Child Development, 67, 993–1002. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01778.x Google Scholar
Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (1995). Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child Development, 66, 710–722. doi:10.2307/1131945 Google Scholar
Crick, N. R., Grotpeter, J. K., & Bigbee, M. A. (2002). Relationally and physically aggressive children's intent attributions and feelings of distress for relational and instrumental peer provocations. Child Development, 73, 1134–1142. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00462 Google Scholar
Crick, N. R., Murray-Close, D., & Woods, K. (2005). Borderline personality features in childhood: A short-term longitudinal study. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 1051–1070. doi:10.10170S0954579405050492 Google Scholar
Crick, N. R., Woods, K. E., Murray-Close, D., & Han, G. (2007). The development of borderline personality disorder: Current progress and future directions. In Freeman, A. & Reinecke, M. (Eds.), Personality disorders in children and adolescents. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Dawson, M. E., Schell, A. M., & Filion, D. L. (2007). The electrodermal system . In Cacioppo, J. T., Tassinary, L. G., & Berntson, G. G. (Eds.), Handbook of psychophysiology (3rd ed., pp. 159–181). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dodge, K. A., Lochman, J. E., Harnish, J. D., Bates, J. E., & Pettit, G. S. (1997). Reactive and proactive aggression in school children and psychiatrically impaired chronically assaultive youth. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 37. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.106.1.37 Google Scholar
Dollard, J., Doob, L. W., Miller, N. E., Mowrer, O. H., & Sears, R. R. (1939). Frustration and aggression. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
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, 315–326, doi:10.1016/S0165-1781(99)00011-6 Google Scholar
Ebner-Priemer, U. W., Shaw-Welch, S., Grossman, P., Reisch, T., Linehan, M. M., & Bohus, M. (2007). Psychophysiological ambulatory assessment of affective dysregulation in borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Research, 150, 265–275.Google Scholar
Ewart, C. K., & Kolodner, K. B. (1991). Social Competence Interview for assessing physiological reactivity in adolescents. Psychosomatic Medicine, 53, 289–304.Google Scholar
Ewart, C. K., & Kolodner, K. B. (1993). Predicting ambulatory blood pressure during school: Effectiveness of social and nonsocial reactivity tasks in Black and White adolescents. Psychophysiology, 30, 30–38. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1993.tb03202.x Google Scholar
Gardner, K. J., Archer, J., & Jackson, S. (2012). Does maladaptive coping mediate the relationship between borderline personality traits and reactive and proactive aggression? Aggressive Behavior, 38, 403–413. doi:10.1002/ab.21437 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geiger, T., & Crick, N. R. (2001). A developmental psychopathology perspective on vulnerability to personality disorders. In Ingram, R. & Price, J. M. (Eds.), Vulnerability to psychopathology: Risk across the life span. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Gentile, D. A., Mathieson, L. C., & Crick, N. R. (2011). Media violence associations with the form and function of aggression among elementary school children. Social Development, 20, 213–232. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2010.00577.x Google Scholar
Goodman, M., & New, A. (2000). Impulsive aggression in borderline personality disorder. Current Psychiatry Reports, 2, 56–61.Google Scholar
Grotpeter, J. K., & Crick, N. R. (1996). Relational aggression, overt aggression, and friendship. Child Development, 67, 2328–2338.Google Scholar
Harden, P. W., Pihl, R. O., Vitaro, F., & Gendreau, P. L. (1995). Stress response in anxious and nonanxious disruptive boys. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 3, 183–190. doi:10.1177/106342669500300308 Google Scholar
Herpertz, S. C., Kunert, H., Schwenger, U., & Sass, H. (1999). Affective responsiveness in borderline personality disorder: A psychophysiological approach. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 1550–1556.Google Scholar
Herpertz, S. C., Mueller, B., Wenning, B., Qunaibi, M., Lichterfeld, C., & Herpertz-Dahlmann, B. (2003). Autonomic responses in boys with externalizing disorders. Journal of Neural Transmission, 110, 1181–1195. doi:10.1007/s00702-003-0026-6 Google Scholar
Hu, L. T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1–55. doi:10.1080/10705519909540118 Google Scholar
Hubbard, J. A., Smithmyer, C. M., Ramsden, S. R., Parker, E. H., Flanagan, K. D., Dearing, K. F., et al. (2002). Observational, physiological, and self-report measures of children's anger: Relations to reactive versus proactive aggression. Child Development, 73, 1101–1118. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00460 Google Scholar
Kuo, J. R., & Linehan, M. M. (2009). Disentangling emotion processes in borderline personality disorder: Physiological and self-reported assessment of biological vulnerability, baseline intensity, and reactivity to emotionally evocative stimuli. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 531–544. doi:10.1037/a0016392 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Limberg, A., Barnow, S., Freyberger, H. J., & Hamm, A. O. (2011). Emotional vulnerability in borderline personality disorder is cue specific and modulated by traumatization. Biological Psychiatry, 69, 574–582. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.10.024 Google Scholar
Linehan, M. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Little, T. D., Jones, S. M., Henrich, C. C., & Hawley, P. H. (2003). Disentangling the “whys” from the “whats” of aggressive behaviour. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 27, 122–133.Google Scholar
Mandal, E., & Kocur, D. (2013). Psychological masculinity, femininity and tactics of manipulation in patients with borderline personality disorder. Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 15, 45–53.Google Scholar
Marsee, M. A., & Frick, P. J. (2007). Exploring the cognitive and emotional correlates to proactive and reactive aggression in a sample of detained girls. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 969–981. doi:10.1007/s10802-007-9147-y Google Scholar
Mathieson, L. C., Murray-Close, D., Crick, N. R., Woods, K. E., Zimmer-Gembeck, M., Geiger, T. C., et al. (2011). Hostile intent attributions and relational aggression: The moderating roles of emotional sensitivity, gender, and victimization. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39, 977–987. doi:10.1007/s10802-011-9515-5 Google Scholar
McCloskey, M. S., New, A. S., Siever, L. J., Goodman, M., Koenigsberg, H. W., Flory, J. D., et al. (2009). Evaluation of behavioral impulsivity and aggression tasks as endophenotypes for borderline personality disorder. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 43, 1036–1048. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2009.01.002 Google Scholar
Morey, L. (1991). Personality Assessment Inventory. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.Google Scholar
Murray-Close, D. (2013a). Psychophysiology of adolescent peer relations: I. Theory and research findings. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 23, 236–259.Google Scholar
Murray-Close, D. (2013b). Psychophysiology of adolescent peer relations: II. Recent advances and future directions. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 23, 260–273.Google Scholar
Murray-Close, D., & Crick, N. R. (2007). Gender differences in the association between cardiovascular reactivity and aggressive conduct. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 65, 103–113. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2007.03.011 Google Scholar
Murray-Close, D., Ostrov, J. M., & Crick, N. R. (2007). A short-term longitudinal study of growth of relational aggression during middle childhood: Associations with gender, friendship intimacy, and internalizing problems. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 187–203. doi:10.1017/S0954579407070101 Google Scholar
Murray-Close, D., & Rellini, A. H. (2012). Cardiovascular reactivity and proactive and reactive relational aggression among women with and without a history of sexual abuse. Biological Psychology, 89, 54–62. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.09.008 Google Scholar
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998–2010). Mplus user's guide (6th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Author.Google Scholar
New, A. S., Hazlett, E. A., Newmark, R. E., Zhang, J., Triebwasser, J., Meyerson, D., et al. (2009). Laboratory induced aggression: A positron emission tomography study of aggressive individuals with borderline personality disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 66, 1107–1114. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.07.015 Google Scholar
Ostrov, J. M., & Godleski, S. A. (2010). Toward an integrated gender-linked model of aggression subtypes in early and middle childhood. Psychological Review, 117, 233–242. doi:10.1037/a0018070 Google Scholar
Ostrov, J. M., & Houston, R. J. (2008). The utility of forms and functions of aggression in emerging adulthood: Association with personality disorder symptomatology. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37, 1147–1158. doi:10.1007/s10964-008-9289-4 Google Scholar
Ostrov, J. M., Murray-Close, D., Godleski, S. A., & Hart, E. J. (2013). Prospective associations between forms and functions of aggression and social and affective processes during early childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 116, 19–36. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2012.12.009 Google Scholar
Pitts, T. B. (1997). Reduced heart rate levels in aggressive children. In Adrian, R., Brennan, P., Farrington, D. P., & Mednick, S. A. (Eds.), Biosocial bases of violence (pp. 317–320). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prinstein, M. J., & Cillessen, A. H. (2003). Forms and functions of adolescent aggression associated with high levels of peer status. Merrill–Palmer Quarterly, 49, 310–342. doi:10.1353/mpq.2003.0015 Google Scholar
Rogosch, F. A., & Cicchetti, D. (2005). Child maltreatment, attention networks, and potential precursors to borderline personality disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 1071–1089. doi:10.1017/S0954579405050509 Google Scholar
Rose, A. J., Swenson, L. P., & Carlson, W. (2004). Friendships of aggressive youth: Considering the influences of being disliked and of being perceived as popular. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 88, 25–45. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2004.02.005 Google Scholar
Rose, A. J., Swenson, L. P., & Waller, E. M. (2004). Overt and relational aggression and perceived popularity: Developmental differences in concurrent and prospective relations. Developmental Psychology, 40, 378–387. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.40.3.378 Google Scholar
Satorra, A., & Bentler, P. M. (2001). A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis. Psychometrika, 66, 507–514.Google Scholar
Scarpa, A., & Raine, A. (1997). Psychophysiology of anger and violent behavior. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 20, 375–394. doi:10.1016/S0193-953X(05)70318-X Google Scholar
Schmahl, C. G., Elzinga, B. M., Ebner, U. W., Simms, T., Sanislow, C., Vermetten, E., et al. (2004). Psychophysiological reactivity to traumatic and abandonment scripts in borderline personality and posttraumatic stress disorders: A preliminary report. Psychiatry Research, 126, 33–42. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2004.01.005 Google Scholar
Schneider, K. M., Nicolotti, L., & Delamater, A. (2002). Aggression and cardiovascular response in children. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 27, 565–573. doi:10.1093/jpepsy/27.7.565 Google Scholar
Schwartz, D. (2000). Subtypes of victims and aggressors in children's peer groups. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 28, 181–192.Google Scholar
Schwartz, D., Dodge, K. A., Coie, J. D., Hubbard, J. A., Cillessen, A. H., Lemerise, E. A., et al. (1998). Social-cognitive and behavioral correlates of aggression and victimization in boys' play groups. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26, 431–440. doi:10.1023/A:1022695601088 Google Scholar
Sharp, C., Mosko, O., Chang, B., & Ha, C. (2011). The cross-informant concordance and concurrent validity of the Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children in a community sample of boys. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 18, 335–349. doi:10.1177/1359104510366279 Google Scholar
Skodol, A. E., Gunderson, J. G., McGlashan, T. H., Dyck, I. R., Stout, R. L., Bender, D. S., et al. (2002). Functional impairment in patients with schizotypal, borderline, avoidant, or obsessive–compulsive personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 276–283.Google Scholar
Skodol, A. E., Siever, L. J., Livesley, J., Gunderson, J. G., Pfohl, B., & Widiger, T. A. (2002). The borderline diagnosis: II. Biology, genetics, and clinical course. Biological Psychiatry, 51, 951–963.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smithmyer, C. M., Hubbard, J. A., & Simons, R. F. (2000). Proactive and reactive aggression in delinquent adolescents: Relations to aggression outcome expectancies. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 29, 86–93. doi:10.1207/S15374424jccp2901_9 Google Scholar
Sroufe, L. A., & Rutter, M. (1984). The domain of developmental psychopathology. Child Development, 55, 17–29.Google Scholar
Stepp, S. D., Pilkonis, P. A., Hipwell, A. E., Loeber, R., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (2010). Stability of borderline personality disorder features in girls. Journal of Personality Disorders, 24, 460–472. doi:10.1521/pedi.2010.24.4.460 Google Scholar
Stepp, S. D., Smith, T. D., Morse, J. Q., Hallquist, M. N., & Pilkonis, P. A. (2012). Prospective associations among borderline personality disorder symptoms, interpersonal problems, and aggressive behaviors. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 27, 103–124. doi:10.1177/0886260511416468 Google Scholar
Trull, T. J., Stepp, S. D., & Durrett, C. A. (2003). Research on borderline personality disorder: An update. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 16, 77–82.Google Scholar
Underwood, M. K., Beron, K. J., & Rosen, L. H. (2011). Joint trajectories for social and physical aggression as predictors of adolescent maladjustment: Internalizing symptoms, rule-breaking behaviors, and borderline and narcissistic personality features. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 659–678. doi:10.1017/S095457941100023X Google Scholar
Vitaro, F., Brendgen, M., & Tremblay, R. E. (2002). Reactively and proactively aggressive children: Antecedent and subsequent characteristics. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43, 495–505. doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00040 Google Scholar
Werner, N. E., & Crick, N. R. (1999). Relational aggression and social-psychological adjustment in a college sample. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 108, 615–623.Google Scholar
Williams, K. D., Cheung, C. K. T., & Choi, W. (2000). Cyberostracism: Effects of being ignored over the Internet. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 748–762. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.748 Google Scholar