چکیده (انگلیسی):

Previous studies on borderline personality disorder (BPD) development suggest a
transgenerational transmission of parent-child relationship quality, which may also be influenced by
parents’ mental health status. The aim of this study was twofold. First, we aimed to investigate the
transgenerational effect of parental bonding experiences on the development of BPD in their
offspring. Second, we examined the association between parents´ mental health status and BPD in
offspring. Ninety-one female adolescent psychiatric inpatients along with 87 mothers and 59 fathers
were enrolled in the study. Adolescent BPD was assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for
DSM-IV-II, parental bonding with the Parental Bonding Instrument, and parents´ psychiatric
symptoms with the Patient Health Questionnaire. We found that low parental care produced a
transgenerational effect from mother to BPD in offspring. Further, significant associations were
found between paternal psychiatric symptoms and adolescent BPD. High paternal stress levels
mediated the association between maternal affect reported by fathers and BPD in daughters. Thereis evidence of a transgenerational effect of parental bonding specifically for female adolescents with
BPD, compared with other clinical control subjects. Our findings highlight the importance of
including both parents in future research and in early clinical treatment in adolescents with BPD