The role of empathy in the relationship between childhood trauma and borderline personality tendencies in male offenders

ABSTRACT

Childhood trauma and empathy deficits have been found to be related to borderline personality disorder (BPD), but the mechanisms of action remain unclear. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of empathy in male offenders with BPD tendencies and to test its mediating role in the relationship between childhood trauma and BPD tendencies. Two hundred and fifty-seven male offenders and 43 male nonoffender controls completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short From (CTQ-SF), the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) and the Chinese version of the computerized Yoni Task. ANOVA, Mixed-model ANOVAs and the PROCESS macro were used to analyze the inventory data and task performances. Compared to male offenders without BPD tendencies and nonoffender controls, offenders with BPD tendencies showed more severe childhood abuse, lower cognitive empathy and poorer task performances in second-order cognitive and second-order affective theory of mind. Furthermore, cognitive empathy was found to play a mediating role in the relationship between childhood trauma and BPD tendencies. Our findings indicate the effects of childhood trauma and empathy impairments on BPD and suggest the possible application value of the precision empathy ability training in the intervention of offenders with BPD.

KEYWORDS:

• Borderline personality disorder
• childhood trauma
• empathy
• theory of mind

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions. http://xlxy.wfmc.edu.cn/sssdsjj_5460/list.htm

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

The Humanities and Social Science Research Project, Ministry of Education, China (19YJA190006), the Humanities and Social Science Research Project of Shandong Colleges and Universities (J15WC51), Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2017LC023), the Postgraduate Tutor Guidance Ability Improvement Project of Shandong Province (SDYY18148);the Humanities and Social Science Research Project of Shandong Colleges and Universities [J15WC51];The Humanities and Social Science Research Project, Ministry of Education, China [19YJA190006];the Postgraduate Tutor Guidance Ability Improvement Project of Shandong Province [SDYY18148];