3 - (SYM 25) Characterizing Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Across Personality Pathology

While there is growing recognition of the value of better understanding interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) in individuals with personality disorders (PDs), the literature is primarily limited to investigations of IER in borderline personality disorder (BPD). We aim to examine characteristics of IER across various forms of personality pathology. We recruited a sample of 95 community participants with elevated levels of personality pathology (i.e., meeting at least one criterion for BPD). Approximately two-thirds of the sample (63.2%) met diagnostic criteria for at least one PD, and 91.6% reported a history of psychiatric treatment. Participants completed the Personality Inventory for DSM-5, a measure of IER across network partners (see Howard & Cheavens, 2022), and a social network assessment of up to 20 relationship partners. Participants listed a total of 905 network partners, 466 of whom were designated as IER partners. We examined the use of IER across dimensional measures of personality pathology. First, we examined characteristics of IER use (i.e., IER network size, self-reported IER frequency, and the degree of perceived reciprocity between participants’ and their partners’ use of IER) and effectiveness of IER (i.e., perceived efficacy and perceived willingness of IER partners to assist). At the domain level, detachment was negatively related to the size of IER networks (β = -.25, p = .026); additionally, facets within each domain were differentially related to IER use and quality. Second, using multilevel models, we examined partner-level characteristics in relation to measures of IER. The likelihood of being an IER partner and IER frequency were positively associated with positive relationship quality, negative relationship quality, and closeness (ps < .001); partners in higher positive quality and lower negative quality relationships were viewed as more effective and willing (ps < .001). Several of these relations were moderated by personality pathology domains, which we will present. These results help broaden our understanding of IER across the range of personality pathology beyond BPD alone.