Relationships Between Borderline Personality Disorder Traits and Emotional Reactivity and Reinforcement Sensitivity Systems: Network and Mediation Analysis

Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationships between borderline personality disorder and emotional reactivity and reinforcement sensitivity systems through multidimensional analyses. Specifically, it was aimed to evaluate the mediating roles of the emotional reactivity in the relationships between borderline personality disorder and behavioral inhibition system and also the freeze. Method: A total of 601 adults, 80% female (n = 481) and 20% male (n = 120), aged between 18 and 53 (M = 22.51, SD = 4.11), participated in the study. Based on the data obtained from the participants, the relationships among the personality disorder dimensions, reinforcement sensitivity systems (behavioral inhibition system, behavioral activation system, and fight-flight-freeze system), and emotional reactivity subdimensions were assessed using Pearson correlation-based and Gaussian partial correlation-based network analyses. Based on centrality measures obtained from the network analysis, the most influential variables were identified. Then, the mediating roles of the emotional reactivity subdimensions in the relationships between borderline personality disorder and the behavioral inhibition system and the freeze system were tested using PROCESS Macro Model 4. Results: Gaussian graphical model findings indicated that borderline personality disorder occupies a central position within the network structure and that both the behavioral inhibition system and the freeze system established strong relationships with the emotional reactivity dimensions. Mediation analyses revealed that the negative activation and negative intensity subdimensions had a significant mediating role in the relationship between borderline personality disorder traits and both motivational systems. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate the theoretical and clinical importance of considering the interaction between reinforcement sensitivity systems and negative emotional reactivity in the emergence and maintenance processes of borderline personality disorder.