3-144 - Key early childhood self-regulation domains are at risk when being raised by a mother with borderline personality disorder

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Children raised by mothers afflicted with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)—a disorder marked by extreme emotional, behavioral, interpersonal, and self-dysregulation—are at increased risk for developing psychopathology across their entire lifespan (Stepp et al., 2011). BPD symptoms reflect deficits in key developmental tasks of early childhood including self-regulation, social cognition, and self-identity (Macfie, 2009). Thus, several facets of emerging regulatory abilities are likely to be compromised in the context of maternal BPD, which may represent a key mechanism underlying the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology.
To date, only 11 studies (Eyden et al., 2016) have examined the outcomes of children of mothers with BPD. Those studies focused predominantly on child psychopathology rather than the psychological functions compromised in BPD and critical to child development. This symposium presents new information from 3 investigators studying mothers with BPD and their young children. Each assessed key facets of children’s development: self- and emotion-regulation (attention regulation, inhibitory control, delay ability, emotion understanding), self-identity (dissociation), and social cognition (theory of mind). Together, they offer important points about how we conceptualize intergenerational transmission in the context of BPD and highlight the various approaches that can be taken to its study: diagnostic vs. dimensional, single vs. repeated time points, observational vs. self-report, and dynamically vs. behaviorally oriented theoretical models. These points will be drawn out by the discussant who will also discuss shared aspects of risk with other contexts (maltreatment, incarcerated parents, maternal depression), and the need to have evidence to design prevention/intervention efforts for these dyads.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Maureen Zalewski, University of Oregon

Discussant

• Pamela M Cole, Penn State University

Individual Presentations

• Preschoolers’ poorer inhibitory control, delay ability, and affect perspective-taking associated with maternal BPD severity - Presenting Author: Maureen Zalewski, University of Oregon; Nicole Cummins, University of Oregon; Grace Binion, University of Oregon; Jennifer Lewis, University of Oregon; Jacqueline R O'Brien, University of Oregon; Noah Belcher, University of Oregon

• Toddler attention and emotion regulation trajectories moderated by maternal BPD symptom severity - Presenting Author: Elizabeth J. Kiel, Miami University; Kim Gratz, Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio; Randi Phelps, Miami University

• Maternal BPD and Young Children’s Difficulty Forming an Integrated Self: Dissociation and Neglect, Loss, and Inconsistent Parents - Presenting Author: Jenny Macfie, University of Tennessee Knoxville; Gretchen Kurdziel, University of Tennessee; Rebecca M. Mahan, University of Tennessee; Stephanie B. Kors, University of Tennessee