Emotion regulation and borderline personality features: The mediating role of basic psychological need frustration

Abstract

Based on Self-Determination Theory, the present study examined the link between emotion regulation (i.e., emotional integration, dysregulation and suppression) and borderline personality features. In addition, this study examined the role of basic psychological need frustration as a mediator in these relations. Participants were 226 higher education students (Mage = 21.00; SD = 1.61; 77.4% female) who filled out questionnaires concerning their (mal)adaptive emotion regulation, frustration of the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and borderline personality features. Results showed that especially emotional dysregulation and to a lesser extent emotional suppression related to higher levels of borderline personality features, with experiences of need frustration acting as a mediating process underlying these relations. Current findings add to the growing literature showing both emotion regulation and basic psychological needs to be important processes in psychopathology.