Distancing oneself from God: relationships with borderline personality symptomatology

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• borderline personality
• distancing from God
• self-punishment
• self-harm
• self-harm behaviour
• Self-Harm Inventory