The Relationship Between Maternal Personality Pathology and Parent Emotion Socialization: The Moderating Effect of...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Parent emotion socialization (PES) research primarily focuses on mothers without personality disorders (PD).
• Limited research exists on PES in mothers with borderline personality disorder (BPD), and none on PD defined by level of personality functioning (LPF).
• The moderating role of reflective functioning (RF) in maternal PD and PES remains unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between maternal LPF and PES.
• To compare PES between mothers with and without PD.
• To examine the moderating effect of RF on the association between maternal LPF and PES.

Main Methods:

• 149 mothers (42 with PD) completed the Level of Personality Functioning Scale, Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale, and Reflective Functioning Questionnaire.
• Correlational and group comparison analyses were conducted.
• Moderation analysis was used to assess RF's role.

Main Results:

• Maternal LPF negatively correlated with supportive PES and positively with nonsupportive PES.
• Significant differences in supportive and nonsupportive PES were found between mothers with and without PD.
• RF significantly moderated the relationship between maternal LPF and nonsupportive PES.

Conclusions:

• Mothers with LPF-defined PD exhibit similar PES challenges to those with BPD.
• Interventions targeting increased supportive PES, decreased nonsupportive PES, and enhanced RF capacity may benefit mothers with PD.