Emotional intelligence, alexithymia and borderline personality disorder traits in young adults

Background A relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) has recently been identified. EI has also been found to overlap considerably with alexithymia, a construct associated with emotion processing and emotion regulation. EI and alexithymia may further our understanding of the relationship between emotion processing, emotion regulation and BPD. Aims We examined the relationships between EI, alexithymia and BPD traits, hypothesizing that EI and alexithymia would correlate negatively with each other, that EI would correlate negatively with BPD traits and that alexithymia would correlate positively with BPD traits. We also hypothesized that low EI and high alexithymia would predict BPD traits. Method A sample of 134 male and female university students completed the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory: Short (EQ-i:S), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline Scale (PAI-BOR). Relationships were examined using correlation and multiple regression. Results The EQ-i: S and the TAS-20 correlated moderately with each other. None of the EQ-i: S scales predicted PAI-BOR. The TAS-20 total significantly predicted PAI-BOR. Conclusions The relationship between alexithymia and BPD suggest that difficulty identifying, differentiating, understanding and communicating emotions and feelings (somatic sensations) impairs ability to regulate emotions. It may be that an inability to discriminate emotions and somatic sensations explains why people with BPD who are distressed use deliberate self-harm as a means to emotion regulation. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.