Distancing oneself from God: relationships with borderline personality symptomatology

Self-harm behaviour traditionally has been associated with borderline personality disorder. In this study, we examined the relationship between borderline personality symptomatology and intentionally distancing oneself from God as self-punishment, based on the assumption that such self-punishment ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Sansone, Randy A. (Author) ; Wiederman, Michael W. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis 2013
In: Mental health, religion & culture
Year: 2013, Volume: 16, Issue: 2, Pages: 210-214
Further subjects:B self-harm behaviour
B self-punishment
B Self-harm
B Self-Harm Inventory
B Borderline personality
B distancing from God
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Summary:Self-harm behaviour traditionally has been associated with borderline personality disorder. In this study, we examined the relationship between borderline personality symptomatology and intentionally distancing oneself from God as self-punishment, based on the assumption that such self-punishment may represent a form of self-harm behaviour. Data from four previous samples of primary care outpatients collected over a two-year period were combined (N = 1511). Borderline personality was assessed with two measures: the borderline personality scale of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 (PDQ-4) and the Self-Harm Inventory (SHI). Point-biserial correlation coefficients revealed that those who endorsed distancing oneself from God as punishment scored relatively higher on both the PDQ-4 (r = 0.40, p < 0.001) and the SHI (r = 0.46, p < 0.001). Similarly, when compared to respondents who denied ever having distanced themselves from God as punishment, those who did were more likely to exceed the clinical cut-off score on the PDQ-4 (47.3% vs. 10.9%, X2 = 152.53, p < 0.001) and the SHI (57.3% vs. 11.4%, X2 = 224.12, p < 0.001). Findings support our hypothesis that distancing oneself from God as punishment may be a form of self-harm behaviour associated with borderline personality symptomatology.
ISSN:1469-9737
Contains:Enthalten in: Mental health, religion & culture
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/13674676.2012.666518