From Childhood Emotional Abuse to Adolescent Dissociation: The Role of Borderline Personality Features

Childhood emotional abuse is increasingly recognized as a risk factor for borderline personality features (BPF) and dissociation, yet little is known about how these processes unfold during adolescence. This study examined whether BPF mediate the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and dissociation in a community sample of adolescents. A total of 111 adolescents (ages 13 to 20) completed the Childhood Experiences of Care and Abuse Questionnaire (CECA.Q), the Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children (BPFS-C), and the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES). As hypothesized, BPF fully mediated the link between childhood emotional abuse and dissociation, accounting for 37% of the variance in dissociative symptoms. Supplementary analyses further suggested that this indirect association was primarily driven by affective instability and identity problems. Findings highlight adolescence as a critical period for intervention and suggest that targeting BPF may be clinically relevant when treating dissociative symptoms in youth exposed to childhood emotional abuse.