The Relationship between Attachment Styles and Childhood Trauma with Social-Emotional Problems in Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Borderline Personality Disorder

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili

2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Mohaghegh Ardabili University

Abstract

Introduction:Adolescence as the most critical stage of development, is full of challenges that addressing will reduce the likelihood of adolescents developing socio-emotional problems; therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between attachment styles and childhood trauma with adolescents' socio-emotional problems: the mediating role of borderline personality disorder.
Method:This study was a descriptive-correlational structural equation study, in which 631 people were selected from the statistical population of adolescent girls and boys aged 14 to 18 in Mashhad in 2023-2024 using the convenience method. The data collection tools were the Woodworth Social Emotional Problems Inventory(WPI), Collins and Reed Attachment Scale(RAAS), Bernstein et al.'s Childhood Trauma Questionnaire(CTQ), and Claridge and Brooks' Borderline Personality(STB). The mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation tests, and structural equations were used to analyze the findings using SPSS-27 and AMOS-24 software
Results:The results showed that the conceptual model of the study has a good fit and that attachment styles have a significant direct effect on adolescents' emotional problems(p<0.01), but childhood trauma does not have a direct effect on emotional problems(p>0.05).Also, the results of the mediation analysis showed that borderline personality plays a mediating role in the relationship between attachment styles and childhood trauma with adolescents' emotional problems(p<0.01)
Conclusion:The results of this study can be used in designing counseling-therapeutic interventions to reduce the likelihood of emotional problems. Also, given the lack of direct effect of childhood trauma on the occurrence of emotional problems, it is suggested that the role of this factor be re-examined in future studies

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References

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  • Receive Date: 05 November 2024
  • Revise Date: 10 June 2025
  • Accept Date: 20 May 2025

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