Role of Family Environment and Dysfonctional Attitude in Borderline Personality Disorder

The present investigation aimed at studying the role of Family Environment and Dysfunctional Attitude in Borderline Personality Disorder. The sample comprised 200 subjects (100 males and 100 females) in the age range of 16-19 years from various schools and colleges of Punjab. To select adolescents with BPD from general population IPDE-International Personality Disorder Examination (Loranger, 1999) was used as a screening measure. Family Environment Scale-Form R (Moos & Moos, 1994) & Dysfunctional Attitude (Weissman & Beck, 1978) were also administered to assess subjects present family milieu, its strengths & problems and also to assess dysfunctional attitude respectively. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was applied to study the relationships of FES and Dysfunctional Attitude with BPD. The obtained results revealed that certain dimensions of FES, viz., Cohesion and Expressiveness under relationship dimension and Control under System Maintenance Dimension were negatively correlated while Intellectual Cultural Orientation and Moral Religious Emphasis were found to be positively correlated under Personal Growth Dimension. Dysfunctional Attitude was also found to be positively correlated. These findings suggest that greater the cohesion and expressiveness in a family, lesser would be the proneness towards BPD while too much emphasis on Moral Religious values, Intellectual Cultural Orientation or even Control may instigate rebelliousness amongst the adolescents. Moreover greater the dysfunctional attitude of an individual, greater would be the proneness towards BPD.