Observing Parenting in the Context of Maternal Borderline Personality Disorder and Adolescent Symptomatology

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe and chronic disorder characterized by a distorted sense of self, fear of abandonment, and difficulties forming and maintaining relationships. Two empirically supported developmental antecedents of offspring borderline features include invalidating parenting practices and maternal BPD. Recent research found that parental psychological control is one type of invalidating parenting behavior that is related to maternal borderline symptoms. The current study observed maternal psychologically controlling behaviors among a sample of 56 adolescents ages 14-18 and their mothers, who were divided into groups of those diagnosed with BPD (n = 28) and those who did not have the disorders (n = 28). Results revealed that maternal psychological control was positively associated with mothers’ borderline features. Further, mothers with BPD used more psychological control compared to normative mothers. Post-hoc findings also demonstrated that maternal psychological control used by mothers with BPD differed based on adolescent gender. Additionally, analyses investigated at adolescent outcomes and revealed a positive correlation between maternal psychological control and adolescent borderline features and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The empirical and clinical implications of the associations of psychological control with both maternal BPD and adolescent outcomes are discussed.