Interpersonal trust in adolescents with psychiatric disorders and borderline pathology
Article Category: research-article
Published Online: Nov 15, 2021
Page range: 176 - 186
Received: Aug 18, 2021
Accepted: Oct 31, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/sjcapp-2021-020
Keywords
© 2021 Miana Graves et al., published by sciendo.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Background:
Adolescents with features of borderline personality disorder (BPD) may experience deficits in interpersonal trust; however, a simultaneous comparison of interpersonal trust among adolescents with BPD, other psychiatric disorders, and no psychiatric conditions (healthy controls) has never been conducted.
Objective:
The aims of this study were to 1) explore differences in interpersonal trust (emotional trust, honesty beliefs, and reliability beliefs) between these three groups, and 2) examine the incremental value of BPD features in association with interpersonal trust over and above internalizing and externalizing.
Method:
Adolescents (
Results:
Emotional trust differed significantly across all three groups, with the lowest level of emotional trust in adolescents with BPD. Reliability was also lower in the two psychiatric groups relative to healthy controls. BPD features were significantly, inversely associated with emotional trust and reliability beliefs when controlling for internalizing and externalizing pathology. Post-hoc analyses testing specificity of the three forms of trust found that lower emotional trust predicted BPD diagnosis over and above the other two forms of trust.
Conclusions:
Findings highlight emotional trust as a correlate and important target of intervention for adolescents with BPD, and add to knowledge on interpersonal trust deficits for adolescents with psychiatric disorders more broadly.