An empirical investigation of the specific relations between subdimensions of the DSM-IV borderline personality disorder and facets of the Five-Factor Model of personality. Poster presented at the 1st International congress on Borderline Personality Disorder.

Prior research has shown that the DSM-IV borderline personality disorder (BPD) can be adequately described by a set of prototypic facets of the Five-Factor Model of personality (FFM), and has a multi-factorial latent structure, underscoring its diagnostic heterogeneity. The current study extends this research (1) by verifying previously derived subdimensions of BPD and (2) by examining whether the FFM-facets might be more specifically related to these distinct subdimensions as compared to the entire BPD construct.
For 155 psychiatric inpatients, the DSM-IV BPD criteria and the FFM-facets were assessed with structured clinical interviews (SCID-II and SIFFM). Three existing multidimensional BPD structures (Blais et al., 1997; Sanislow et al., 2000; Becker et al., 2005) were tested and compared through confirmatory factor analyses. Subsequently, the subdimensions of the best fitting model were regressed on the FFM-facets via separate multiple regression analyses.
Becker et al.'s four-factor model attained excellent model fit and proved superior to the other models. In the prediction of three of the four subdimensions, other FFM-facets emerged than those facets predicting the total BPD dimension. Therefore, the FFM seems exceedingly helpful in clarifying the heterogeneity of the BPD construct, explaining its etiological and comorbid complexity, and developing specific treatment procedures.