Exploring the role of romantic competence in borderline personality disorder
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Ian B. Penzel (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Rosemery Nelson Gray
Abstract: Romantic relationship functioning is a frequent topic of interest in research about borderline personality disorder (BPD). Elevated BPD features tend to contribute to shorter lasting, less satisfying, and more conflictive relationships (Navarro-Gomez et al., 2017). Less is known, however, about the moderators that contribute to these adverse outcomes. This study explored whether romantic competence (RC) moderates the negative impact of BPD features on romantic relationship outcomes. Romantic competence refers to a tacit skillset for navigating through romantic relationship experiences with insight, from mutuality, and in an emotionally regulated manner (Davila et al., 2017). This dissertation study assessed romantic competence using three published instruments and explored its role on both global and daily indices of relationship satisfaction and conflict tactics through a two-week daily diary protocol. There were modest correlations among the romantic competence instruments. The Inventory for Romantic Relationship Competence (IRRC; Faber et al., 2019) produced strong main effects that were aligned with the proposed global hypotheses. Using the IRRC, romantic competence was predictive of all global relationship outcomes and moderated the effect of BPD features on the use of global compromise tactics. Specifically, higher IRRC scores were associated with increased daily indices of relationship satisfaction and compromise behaviors. However, it did not moderate daily outcomes. BPD features did not predict global outcomes but predicted engaging in reactive behaviors in response to daily conflict. In short, this study is the first to compare three romantic competence instruments and to explore the interactive nature between romantic competence and BPD features for predicting romantic relationship outcomes.
Exploring the role of romantic competence in borderline personality disorder
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Created on 8/1/2022
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2022
- Keywords
- Borderline Personality Disorder, Daily Diary, Reactivity to Conflict, Romantic Competence
- Subjects
- Borderline personality disorder
- Interpersonal relations
- Interpersonal conflict