Emotion Recognition and the Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (SI-Bord): outcomes and community-based validation

Abstract

Background Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a psychiatric condition characterized by impulsivity, affect instability, dysregulation, low self-image, and interpersonal difficulties. There are many instruments to measure traits of BPD, however few can be administered quickly. The SI-Bord is an instrument offering a brief administration time with comparable psychometric properties to more comprehensive measures. The present study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the SI-Bord in a healthy community-based sample and its relatedness to measures of social cognition. Methods A community-based sample of participants completed an online survey consisting of measures of BPD traits and social cognition consisting of the Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (SI-Bord), the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), the Florida Affect Battery (FAB), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI). Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and inter-item correlations. Validity was assessed using factor analysis, examining associations with other measures of BPD traits, and examining associations with measures not measuring BPD traits. Results 151 participants were included in the study. Participants’ age ranged from 20–76 (mean age of 38.79 ± 12.37) and comprised 76 females (50.33%) and 75 males (49.67%). Good internal consistency was found with a Cronbach’s alpha of .71. Good inter-item reliability was found with a mean inter-item cross correlation of .25, with each item of the SI-Bord showing an inter-item correlation coefficient of > .5. Factor analysis identified good construct validity with a strong singular dimension explaining a large proportion of variance. The SI-Bord showed good concurrent validity with significantly positive correlations with the subscales of the PAI borderline scale measuring affect instability (r = .60; p < .001), identity problems (r = .67; p < .001), negative relationships (r = .61; p < .001), self-harm (r = .39; p < .001), and total score (r = .76; p < .001). The SI-Bord was not correlated with the NPI-16 (r = .131; p = .11), showing good divergent validity. Conclusions These findings support the efficacy of the SI-Bord as a quick and useful screening tool in the diagnostic process of BPD.