Interpersonal Functioning in Borderline Personality Disorder Traits: A Social Media Perspective

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Media Studies
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by interpersonal difficulties.
• The impact of BPD features on social media behavior is not well understood.
• Social media plays a significant role in modern social interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between borderline personality disorder (BPD) features and social media use.
• To identify specific interpersonal difficulties related to BPD features within the social media context.
• To explore the prevalence of these difficulties in a non-clinical population.

Main Methods:

• Crowdsourcing was used to recruit participants.
• Participants completed questionnaires on social media usage patterns.
• Borderline personality disorder features were assessed using the Five-Factor Borderline Inventory.

Main Results:

• Higher BPD trait scores correlated with increased social media posting frequency.
• Individuals with higher BPD traits reported more frequent regret, deletion, or editing of posts.
• Social media was reported as more important to social behavior and daily routines by those with higher BPD traits.

Conclusions:

• Interpersonal difficulties associated with BPD features extend to social media behavior.
• These findings demonstrate the pervasiveness of BPD-related interpersonal challenges in online environments.
• The study provides a foundation for future research on BPD, social media, and therapeutic interventions.