(PS7-A4) Assessing the Role of Identity Disturbance in the Association Between Features of Borderline Personality Disorder and Interpersonal Functioning for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Adults

Self-concept, or how individuals evaluate and describe themselves, is a psychosocial construct that has been linked to positive mental health outcomes, such as dispositional mindfulness and wellbeing (Hanley, 2017). It has also been found to mediate the relationship between stress and subjective well-being (Ritchie, 2011). Impairment to self-concept, or identity disturbance, however, is one of two central features of personality pathology and is a criterion for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD; Morey et al., 2022). LGB individuals may be particularly likely to score high on assessments of identity disturbance as they experience greater impairment to self-concept and are diagnosed with BPD at higher rates than their straight peers (Hinton et al., 2022; Rodriguez-Seijas, 2021). Given the centrality of identity disturbance to BPD and relevance for LGB individuals, it is important to consider how impairment in this domain relates to other BPD-consistent impairments, specifically interpersonal functioning. We hypothesized that identity disturbance would moderate the relationship between BPD features and interpersonal problems such that the relationship between BPD features and interpersonal problems would be stronger at high levels of identity disturbance.

An MTurk sample of LGB adults (n = 243; 54% women; age M = 31.28) completed the Personality Assessment Inventory – Borderline Subscale (PAI-BOR; Morey et al., 1991) to assess features of BPD, the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP; Horowitz et al., 1988) to assess interpersonal functioning, and the Self-Concept and Identity Measure (SCIM; Kaufman et al., 2015) to assess identity disturbance. The IIP is comprised of five subscales not meant to be aggregated; therefore, five regression models were run with the association between PAI-BOR scores and each IIP subscale moderated by SCIM scores. Identity disturbance significantly moderated the relationship between BPD features and interpersonal problems for three of the five subscales – interpersonal sensitivity (b = .145, F(243) = 26.925, p = .017), need for social approval (b = .140, F(243) = 8.871, p = .041), and sociability (b = .417, F(243) = 6.722, p = .032), but not aggressiveness or interpersonal ambivalence.

These findings suggest that for LGB individuals with high levels of identity disturbance, there is a stronger relationship between BPD features and interpersonal problems related to social evaluation and response. Assessing identity disturbance may, therefore, be particularly important to understand the experiences of other related BPD features, such as interpersonal sensitivity, in LBG individuals. Future researchers should examine whether this moderating effect is observed in other marginalized groups, such as racial or ethnic minorities. Moreover, it is possible that specific elements of identity functioning (e.g., incohesive sense of self) are more strongly associated with interpersonal difficulties and BPD features. Future researchers might also examine these findings longitudinally to determine whether identity functioning is a driver of interpersonal problems in BPD for LGB individuals and a potential target of intervention.