The Interplay of Borderline Personality Features, Emotion Regulation and Parenting Styles in Early Adulthood: Insights From Network Analysis

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is marked by emotional instability, identity disturbances and interpersonal difficulties. While deficits in emotion regulation (ER) and parenting styles are associated with BPD, their combined impact on specific BPD features remains unclear. This study used network analysis to explore the complex associations between parenting styles, ER strategies and specific BPD features in a sample of 1289 undergraduate students. Participants completed the Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline subscale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire. Gaussian graphical models combined with exploratory graph analysis identified central and bridge nodes within the network. Expressive suppression emerged as the most central node in the model, strongly linked to affective instability, negative relationships and self-harm. Cognitive reappraisal showed protective associations with reduced affective instability and identity problems. Authoritative parenting was associated with greater reappraisal and less suppression, whereas authoritarian and permissive parenting styles were linked to maladaptive ER patterns. Bridge nodes (affective instability and negative relationships) connected ER and interpersonal domains, indicating potential pathways for cross-domain distress transmission. This study advances dimensional models of personality pathology by integrating parenting variables into BPD features networks, revealing both intra- and cross-domain intervention targets.