Impact of Social Support on Suicidal Ideation and Attempts Among Gender Minority Adults.

This study examined the impact of social support from family, non-gender minority friends, gender minority friends, and religious groups on suicidal ideation, suicide attempt history, and the number of suicide attempts. Researchers hypothesized that these types of social support were associated with lower suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This research is a secondary analysis of the Virginia Transgender Health Initiative Survey (THIS) data set (N = 350). Logistic regressions assessed suicidal ideation and attempts. Linear regression assessed the number of suicide attempts. Age was a covariate in all analyses. Social support from family (B = -.419, SE = .119, p < .001) was negatively associated with suicidal ideation and was not associated with an attempt history or number of attempts. This finding suggests that increasing social support from family may be an important factor to consider for suicide prevention for gender minority individuals.

Psychometric properties of the Persian version of short-form five factor borderline inventory (FFBI-SF).

BACKGROUND: The Five-Factor Borderline Inventory-Short Form (FFBI-SF) is a self-report measure developed to assess traits of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) from the perspective of the Five-Factor Model of general personality. This study was designed to examine the factor structure, internal consistency, and convergent/discriminant validity of the Persian FFBI-SF in a sample of Iranian university students. METHODS: A total of 641 university students (M-age = 28.04, SD = 8.21, 66.7% women) completed the online forms of the FFBI-SF, PID-5-BF, and Mini IPIP. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analysis supported the original and modified (without item 47) twelve-factor models. Also, Cronbach's alpha (α) for the FFBI-SF scores ranged from unacceptable to excellent ranges. However, when relying on MIC values to measure internal consistency, the FFBI-SF Total and subscale scores demonstrated adequate internal consistency. Finally, the FFBI Total and subscale scores showed the expected relations with other personality measures scores (e.g., Neuroticism, Antagonism, and Conscientiousness), which supports the validity of the interpretation of the FFBI-SF scores. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicated that FFBI-SF is a useful tool with sound psychometric properties for assessing BPD traits in Iranian students and may spark research in other Iranian settings (e.g., community and clinical samples).

The Importance of Considering Clinical Utility in the Construction of a Diagnostic Manual.

The development of major diagnostic manuals primarily has been guided by construct validity rather than clinical utility. The purpose of this article is to summarize recent research and theory examining the importance of clinical utility when constructing and evaluating a diagnostic manual. We suggest that construct validity is a necessary but not sufficient criterion for diagnostic constructs. This article discusses components of clinical utility and how these have applied to the current and forthcoming diagnostic manuals. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.

Investigating the transdiagnostic potential of rumination in relation to Cluster B personality disorder symptoms.

This study examined several forms of repetitive negative thinking in relation to measures of Cluster B disorders to identify unique and co-occurring cognitive mechanisms contributing to these symptom presentations. MTurk participants (N = 725; 53% men; 76% White) completed categorical and dimensional trait-based measures of Cluster B disorders alongside six measures of rumination and worry. Oversampling strategies were used during participant recruitment to obtain a sample with clinically relevant personality features. Path analyses examined each form of repetitive negative thinking in relation to Cluster B measures while controlling for shared variance between each construct. Anger rumination demonstrated notable relations across all four Cluster B personality disorders. Similarly, sadness rumination was positively associated with all four Cluster B personality disorders. Self-critical rumination and depressive rumination were uniquely associated with borderline symptoms. Worry demonstrated negative associations with measures of narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial/psychopathy symptoms. Findings expand previous research by highlighting probable transdiagnostic and distinguishing cognitive process contributing to the presentation of Cluster B personality pathology. However, partialling the influence of overlapping constructs presents notable challenges in identifying and interpreting unique relations between various forms of repetitive negative thinking and Cluster B symptoms. Future research investigating these relations within outpatient and inpatient samples may provide avenues for the development of effective cognitive-based interventions for treating these symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Development and Validation of the Five-Factor Borderline Inventory-Super Short Form and Screener.

The Five-Factor Borderline Inventory (FFBI) and FFBI-Short Form (FFBI-SF) are 120-item and 48-item measures that assess the underlying maladaptive personality traits of borderline personality disorder (BPD). The purpose of this study was to develop a super short form (FFBI-SSF) and an FFBI-Screener to facilitate the use of dimensional trait measures for BPD. Using item response theory analyses, the 48-item measure was reduced to 22 items using a large undergraduate sample (N = 1300) and then retested using a Mechanical Turk sample (N = 602), demonstrating strong replicability. IRT was again used to further reduce the measure from 22 items to four items to provide a brief screening tool. Correlations of the FFBI-SSF and Screener with measures of BPD-related variables were compared across five samples (N = 919, 204, 580, 281, and 488). Overall, the FFBI-SSF showed similar relations to the FFBI-SF at the full scale and domain-level scales, while the FFBI-screener demonstrated similar relations at the full scale level. This super short form and screener may best be used in large-scale research studies or as part of a screening tool in clinical settings.

A crisis in college student mental health? Self-ratings of psychopathology before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of college students was investigated in a cross-sectional design using the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991, 2007). Three large samples of college students were recruited for research purposes and given standard instructions: 825 students from two universities assessed in the 2021-2022 academic year (postpandemic), 558 students from three universities assessed between 2016 and 2019 (prepandemic), and 1,051 students from seven universities assessed in 1989 and 1990 (college norms). Comparisons of PAI scores with the prepandemic cohort revealed several significantly higher scores in the postpandemic cohort, especially for scales related to anxiety and depression. Comparisons with the college norms revealed significantly higher scores on several PAI scales in the prepandemic cohort, and these differences were largest for scales related to anxiety, depression, and somatic symptoms. PAI scales related to impulsivity, alcohol use, and other behavior problems showed no changes or decline from earlier to later cohorts. Taken together, the findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified problems with anxiety and depression that existed before the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Borderline personality disorder traits and rates of NSSI during the COVID-19 pandemic: An initial investigation.

Objective: The current study evaluated frequency of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and associated maladaptive traits between three time periods: pre-pandemic, early pandemic, and later pandemic. Participants: Two college student samples (n = 362; n = 337) were collected via two online studies. Method: Participants completed measures assessing maladaptive borderline personality traits, engagement in NSSI over the past month, and reasons for and types of NSSI engaged in across the lifetime. Results: Results demonstrated a stable and potentially a slight increase in general rates of NSSI over the course of the pandemic. Further, specific maladaptive traits that underly borderline personality disorder (i.e., despondence, fragility, self-disturbance, and anxious-uncertainty) were related to engagement in NSSI 1-month post COVID. Conclusion: The study highlights the need for added interventions that might reach at risk populations during these heightened periods of stress.

The association between personality traits and hoarding behaviors.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Hoarding is a behavior that occurs across a variety of disorders, including hoarding disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and schizophrenia. Hoarding is also a normative human behavior within certain contexts, including the recent coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, when individuals became panicked about the availability of products such as toilet paper and antibacterial wipes. Previous research suggests that personality traits and personality disorder symptoms may be linked with hoarding behaviors. The purpose of this review is to provide a snapshot of recent research on hoarding and personality. RECENT FINDINGS: Most recent research on this topic has focused on hoarding behaviors as the action of stockpiling goods during a pandemic. Research on this area was mixed with regard to extraversion and openness but was strongly suggestive of a link between stockpiling behaviors and increased neuroticism. Hoarding in the context of OCD was linked with lower levels of both extraversion and conscientiousness. Patients with hoarding disorder almost universally have clinically elevated levels of personality disorder traits. SUMMARY: The directions of observed associations between five-factor model personality traits and hoarding behaviors differ across diagnostic and geographic contexts. Additional research is needed with participants who meet diagnostic criteria for hoarding disorder.

The Synergistic Effects of Neuroticism and Extraversion on Suicidal Ideation, Single Attempts, and Multiple Attempts in an Inpatient Sample.

The current study sought to investigate the differential risk/protective factors of neuroticism and extraversion among individuals with only suicide ideation, those with a single suicide attempt, and those with multiple attempts. We hypothesized that extraversion would moderate the relation between neuroticism and suicide attempts (single and multiple) but not ideation. Patients in a private facility (N = 3343) completed measures assessing suicide history and general personality traits. Four moderation analyses were conducted with extraversion moderating the relationship between neuroticism and suicide ideation, single attempt (compared to zero attempts), and multiple attempts (compared to zero attempts and to single attempts). Extraversion moderated neuroticism only when comparing individuals with multiple suicide attempts to those with no attempts. Individuals who were low in both neuroticism and extraversion had higher levels of attempts than individuals with low neuroticism and high extraversion, highlighting the importance of considering biological predispositions as risk factors for suicide.

Rumination as a transdiagnostic process: The role of rumination in relation to antisocial and borderline symptoms.

The present study examined the influence of several forms of repetitive negative thinking on antisocial and borderline symptoms to identify underlying mechanisms that may contribute to the presentation and cooccurrence of these symptoms. Participants (N = 403), completed the Personality Assessment Inventory, the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4, and several measures of rumination/worry. Path analyses were conducted in which different forms of rumination/worry predicted antisocial and borderline symptoms across two personality disorder measures. Across both models tested, anger rumination emerged as the strongest predictor of both antisocial and borderline symptoms while worry negatively predicted antisocial symptoms. Rumination and worry explained substantially more variance in borderline symptoms compared to antisocial symptoms. This study is the first study to examine antisocial symptoms in relation to forms of rumination/worry and highlights the differential relations of rumination/worry to antisocial and borderline symptoms using a multi-measure approach. Further, this study highlights the importance of examining types of repetitive negative thinking, specifically rumination, as potential transdiagnostic processes.