The Influence Of Childhood Abuse On Borderline Personality Disorder Of College Students And The Mediating Role Of Unsafe Attachment

ObjectiveTo understand the epidemic characteristics of borderline personality disorder(BPD)among college students,analyze the influence of childhood abuse on BPD,and explore the mediating role of unsafe attachment between childhood abuse and BPD.MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted among college students from four schools in Hefei.A total of 4,287 students were invited to participate in the study.4,034 valid samples were obtained and the response rate was 94.1%.Childhood trauma experience questionnaire,State Adult Attachment Scale and Mi’s borderline personality disorder test were used to evaluate childhood abuse experience,unsafe attachment and BPD,and the SPSS 23.0 and Amos 24.0 were used for data analysis.Chi square test was used to analyze whether there were differences in the positive rate of BPD screening among college students with different demographic indicators.The relationship between childhood abuse and unsafe attachment and BPD was studied by single and multi factor Logistic regression;spearman correlation analysis was used to study the correlation between childhood abuse,unsafe attachment and BPD.Finally,the structure equation model of Amos 24.0 was used to analyze the mediating effect of unsafe attachment between childhood abuse and BPD.ResultsThe positive rate of BPD screening was 4.2%.There was no significant difference in the positive rate of BPD screening among college students with different gender,registered residence and family type(all P > 0.05).There were significant differences in the positive rate of BPD screening among college students with different personality types,different grades,different family economic status,different academic achievements,different number of friends and different relationship between parents(all P < 0.05);the positive rate of BPD screening was relatively higher in college students with introversion,low grade,poor family economic situation,poor academic performance,less than 3 friends and poor relationship with their parents.The results showed that three types of childhood abuse(physical abuse,emotional abuse and sexual abuse)and unsafe attachment were risk factors of BPD,and the OR values were 1.242(95%CI: 1.190-1.298),1.174(95%CI:1.122-1.229),1.162(95%CI:1.107-1.219),1.795(95%CI:1.510-2.135)respectively.When physical abuse,emotional abuse,sexual abuse and unsafe attachment were put into the regression model at the same time,only emotional abuse and unsafe attachment were significant(P < 0.001),while physical abuse and sexual abuse had no significant difference(P > 0.05).Spearman correlation analysis showed that there were significant positive correlations among the three types of childhood abuse,unsafe attachment and BPD(P <0.001).The results of analysis of the mediating role of unsafe attachment between childhood abuse and BPD showed that when the three types of childhood abuses were separately put into the mediating model,the indirect and direct effects of the three childhood abuses on BPD were significant,indicating that unsafe attachment played a partial mediating role between three types of childhood abuse and BPD among college students;when the three childhood abuses were put into the mediating model at the same time,the indirect and direct effects of physical abuse and sexual abuse on BPD were not significant,while the indirect and direct effects of emotional abuse on BPD were significant,indicating that when other forms of childhood abuse were controlled,only emotional abuse(not sexual or physical abuse)had both direct and indirect effects on BPD.ConclusionUnsafe attachment partially mediates the relationship between childhood abuse and BPD.At the same time,this study also shows that when other forms of abuse are controlled,only emotional abuse(not physical or sexual abuse)is independently associated with BPD.