Child of Parent with BPD?
Inability to express or regulate emotions, difficulties establishing and maintaining relationships, and feelings of guilt, shame and emptiness were also noted among children of parents with borderline personality disorder.
Understanding the impact of parents’ mental illness
Research from the University of Adelaide has found that the children of parents suffering from an emotionally unstable form of personality disorder are at risk of developing behavioural and emotional issues – but the children can also be protected from experiencing similar difficulties to their parents.
For her PhD research, Dianna Bartsch in the University’s School of Psychology has surveyed clinicians who work with parents who have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and their families.
BPD is a mental illness that affects approximately 1-2% of people in the general population. It is categorised by difficulty managing emotions, impulsive and self-harming behaviour, intense and unstable relationships, chronic feelings of emptiness, stress-related paranoia and other symptoms.
In a paper published in the journal Personality and Mental Health, Mrs Bartsch says clinicians have identified a number of potential impacts on children whose parents suffer from BPD.
“The most frequently cited issues for children are behavioural problems – which may include impulsive and in some cases self-destructive behaviour – and situations where the child takes on a parental role,” Mrs Bartsch says.
“Inability to express or regulate emotions, difficulties establishing and maintaining relationships, and feelings of guilt, shame and emptiness were also noted among children of parents with borderline personality disorder.
One Comment
Randi Kreger
The NEPD also has a presentation about the attachment difficulties between BPD mothers and their toddlers and teens. All of that research was based on the best case possible: mothers with BPD in treatment who wanted to participate in the research. Not included women who didn’t want to be studied or who are not in the mental health system.
The book Understanding the Borderline Mother by Christine Lawson was published by a textbook publisher in 2002. Surviving the Borderline Parent was published in 2004. I was discussing this with therapists back in the early 1990’s. It is nice that the research has kept up with what most of us knew all along.