Tobias D. Kockler

Longitudinal models suited for the analysis of panel data, such as cross-lagged panel or autoregressive latent-state trait models, assume population homogeneity with respect to the temporal dynamics of the variables under investigation. This assumption is likely to be too restrictive in a myriad of research areas. We propose an extension of autoregressive and cross-lagged latent state-trait models to mixture distribution models. The models allow researchers to model unobserved person heterogeneity and qualitative differences in longitudinal dynamics based on comparatively few observations per person, while taking into account temporal dependencies between observations as well as measurement error in the variables. The models are extended to include categorical covariates, to investigate the distribution of encountered latent classes across observed groups. The potential of the models is illustrated with an application to self-esteem and affect data in patients with borderline personality disorder, an anxiety disorder, and healthy control participants. Requirements for the models’ applicability are investigated in an extensive simulation study and recommendations for model applications are derived.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is commonly characterized by pervasive instability. Affective instability, despite being a diagnostic criterion in the DSM-5, is commonly seen as a transdiagnostic feature, but recent studies have brought new attention to the importance of self-esteem instability as a potential defining feature of BPD. However, evidence is lacking regarding whether heightened self-esteem instability is a specific feature of BPD when patients with BPD are compared to clinical controls. Using ambulatory assessment, we examined self-esteem instability and affective instability in participants' daily lives. We assessed momentary self-esteem and affective state 12 times daily for 4 consecutive days in 71 patients with BPD, 121 patients with anxiety disorders (ADs), and 74 healthy controls (HCs). To determine group differences, we used established instability indices and analyzed multilevel models. Compared to HCs, patients with BPD and those with ADs exhibited heightened self-esteem instability and affective instability. Importantly, the clinical groups did not differ in affective instability, whereas self-esteem instability was significantly higher in patients with BPD than in those with ADs across all instability indices. Beyond the influence of mean self-esteem, patients with BPD had the highest general instability, the most frequent extreme changes, and the largest decreases in self-esteem, especially from high levels of self-esteem. Our results support previous findings on affective instability, which may constitute a transdiagnostic feature, and they provide the first evidence that heightened self-esteem instability is particularly prominent in BPD, underscoring the importance of self-esteem for the understanding of dysregulation in BPD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Dysfunctional behaviors are conceptualized as maladaptive affective coping attempts in borderline personality disorder (BPD). The recent benefits-and-barriers model extended the affective function assumption by adding self-esteem as a barrier to engaging in dysfunctional behaviors. Patients with BPD (N = 119) carried e-diaries to report their current self-esteem, emotional valence, tense arousal, and whether they engaged in dysfunctional behaviors 12 times a day for 4 days. Dynamic structural equation modeling revealed that on the within-person level, high momentary negative affect predicted dysfunctional behaviors, and on the between-person level, low trait self-esteem predicted dysfunctional behaviors. We also found an association between engaging in dysfunctional behaviors and momentary self-esteem and trait levels of valence and tense arousal. Moreover, our results indicate a deterioration of, rather than relief from, negative affective state after dysfunctional behaviors. These findings highlight the importance of emotion-regulation skills and reestablishing a positive self-view as important treatment targets to reduce dysfunctional behaviors in BPD.

With great interest, we read the recently published review on emotion regulation in binge eating disorder (BED) by Dingemans et al. [1].

Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) exhibit dysregulated emotion sequences in daily life compared to healthy controls (HC). Empirical evidence regarding the specificity of these findings is currently lacking. To replicate dysregulated emotion sequences in patients with BPD and to investigate the specificity of the sequences, we used e-diaries of 43 female patients with BPD, 28 patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 20 patients with bulimia nervosa (BN), and 28 HC. To capture the rapid dynamics of emotions, we prompted participants every 15 min over a 24-h period to assess their current perceived emotions. We analyzed group differences in terms of activation, persistence, switches, and down-regulation of emotion sequences. By comparing patients with BPD to HC, we replicated five of the seven previously reported dysregulated emotion sequences, as well as 111 out of 113 unaltered sequences. However, none of the previously reported dysregulated emotion sequences exhibited specificity, i.e., none revealed higher frequencies compared to the PTSD group or the BN group. Beyond these findings, we revealed a specific finding for patients with BN, as they most frequently switched from anger to disgust. Replicating previously found dysregulated and unaltered emotional sequences strengthens the significance of emotion sequences. However, the lack of specificity points to emotion sequences as transdiagnostic features.