The Effect of Trauma Severity on Borderline Personality: Self-Esteem as Mediator

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of trauma experience severity on borderline personality characteristics and to examine as well the mediation effect of self-esteem. To measure traumatic experience severity, the Trauma Experience Questionnaire-Revised (TEQ-R) was developed and validated. The TEQ-R, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the personality assessment inventory-borderline features scale (PAI-BOR) were administered to 400 normal subjects. According to structural equation model analysis, trauma experience severity was positively associated with borderline characteristics, and the mediation effect of self-esteem was significant. Both trauma severity and borderline characteristics were negatively related to self-esteem. Thus, self-esteem seemed to have a buffering effect on the path between trauma and borderline personality.