Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Rumination, Mindfulness, and Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms

  • ORIGINAL PAPER
  • Published:
Mindfulness Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Current research indicates that both rumination and low mindfulness are implicated in the development and maintenance of borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms, yet no research to date has synthesized these findings into one model. In this study, we examined the mediating interplay between BPD symptoms, rumination levels, and low engagement in mindfulness. Two hundred racially diverse undergraduate college students participated in the study. Major depressive disorder (MDD) and BPD symptoms were assessed using semi-structured interviews, and current rumination and mindfulness were assessed using self-report measures. Increased BPD symptoms predicted both decreased mindfulness and increased rumination. Bootstrapping mediation analyses indicated that rumination mediated the association between BPD symptoms and low mindfulness, and low mindfulness mediated the association between BPD symptoms and rumination. Both mediation effects held beyond effects of age, gender and current MDD. However, the magnitude of the indirect effect of BPD on low mindfulness through rumination was significantly larger than the indirect effect of BPD on rumination through low mindfulness. Furthermore, BPD symptoms had a significantly larger indirect effect on low mindfulness through brooding rumination than through reflection rumination. These findings suggest that low mindfulness, rumination, and BPD are intimately related. This study provides important preliminary information for the understanding of the relationship between low mindfulness and rumination in BPD symptom development and treatment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abela, J. R., Payne, A. V., & Moussaly, N. (2003). Cognitive vulnerability to depression in individuals with borderline personality disorder. Journal of Personality Disorders, 17(4), 319–329.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schweizer, S. (2010). Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: a meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(2), 217–237.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Armey, M. F., Fresco, D. M., Moore, M. T., Mennin, D. S., Turk, C. L., Heimberg, R. G., & Alloy, L. B. (2009). Brooding and pondering: isolating the active ingredients of depressive rumination with exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Assessment, 16, 315–327.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baer, R. A., & Sauer, S. E. (2011). Relationships between depressive rumination, anger rumination, and borderline personality features. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 2(2), 142–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baer, R. A., Smith, G. T., & Allen, K. B. (2004). Assessment of mindfulness by self-report the Kentucky inventory of mindfulness skills. Assessment, 11(3), 191–206.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Broderick, P. C. (2005). Mindfulness and coping with dysphoric mood: contrasts with rumination and distraction. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29(5), 501–510.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822–848.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, L. E., & Brown, K. W. (2005). Validation of the mindful attention awareness scale in a cancer population. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 58, 29–33.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clifton, A., & Pilkonis, P. A. (2007). Evidence for a single latent class of diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders borderline personality pathology. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 48, 70–78.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • First, M. B., Gibbon M., Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B. W., & Benjamin L. S. (1997). User’s guide for the structured clinical interview for DSM–IV axis II personality disorders. Washington: American Psychiatric Press.

  • Gratz, K. L., & Gunderson, J. G. (2006). Preliminary data on an acceptance-based emotion regulation group intervention for deliberate self-harm among women with borderline personality disorder. Behavior Therapy, 37(1), 25–35.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation and conditional process analysis. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jose, P. E., & Brown, I. (2008). When does the gender difference in rumination begin? Gender and age differences in the use of rumination by adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37(2), 180–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context: past, present, and future. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10, 144–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenny, D. A. (1987). Statistics for the social and behavioral sciences (p. 287). USA: Little, Brown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimbrough, E., Magyari, T., Langenberg, L., Chesney, M., & Berman, B. (2010). Mindfulness intervention for child abuse survivors. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66, 17–33.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Linehan, M. M. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, T. R., Chapman, A. L., Rosenthal, M. Z., Kuo, J. R., & Linehan, M. M. (2006). Mechanisms of change in dialectical behavior therapy: theoretical and empirical observations. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62(4), 459–480.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McHolm, A. E., MacMillan, H. L., & Jamieson, E. (2003). The relationship between childhood physical abuse and suicidality among depressed women: results from a community sample. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 933–938.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Michalak, J., Heidenreich, T., Meibert, P., & Schulte, D. (2008). Mindfulness predicts relapse/recurrence in major depressive disorder after mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 196(8), 630–633.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nicastro, R., Jermann, F., Bondolfi, G., & McQuillan, A. (2010). Assessment of mindfulness with the French version of the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills in community and borderline personality disorder samples. Assessment, 17, 197–205.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1991). Responses to depression and their effects on the duration of depressive episodes. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 555–561.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen‐Hoeksema, S., & Jackson, B. (2001). Mediators of the gender difference in rumination. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25(1), 37–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Morrow, J. (1991). A prospective study of depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms after a natural disaster: the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 115–121.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Stice, E., Wade, E., & Bohon, C. (2007). Reciprocal relations between rumination and bulimic, substance abuse, and depressive symptoms in female adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116(1), 198–207.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(5), 400–424.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rothschild, L., Cleland, C., Haslam, N., & Zimmerman, M. (2003). A taxometric study of borderline personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 657–666.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sauer, S. E., & Baer, R. A. (2012). Ruminative and mindful self-focused attention in borderline personality disorder. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 3(4), 433–441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Selby, E. A., Anestis, M. D., Bender, T. W., & Joiner, T. E., Jr. (2009). An exploration of the emotional cascade model in borderline personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118(2), 375.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Selby, E. A., Anestis, M. D., & Joiner, T. E. (2008). Understanding the relationship between emotional and behavioral dysregulation: emotional cascades. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46(5), 593–611.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Selby, E. A., & Joiner, T. E. (2008). Ethnic variations in the structure of borderline personality disorder symptomatology. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 43, 115–123.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Selby, E. A., & Joiner, T. E., Jr. (2009). Cascades of emotion: the emergence of borderline personality disorder from emotional and behavioral dysregulation. Review of General Psychology, 13(3), 219–229.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Selby, E. A., & Joiner, T. E., Jr. (2013). Emotional cascades as prospective predictors of dysregulated behaviors in borderline personality disorder. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 4(2), 168–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Selby, E. A., Kranzler, A., Panza, E., & Fehling, K. B. (in press). Bidirectional-compounding effects of rumination and negative emotion in predicting impulsive behavior: Implications for emotional cascades. Journal of Personality.

  • Sheehan, D. V., Lecrubier, Y., & Sheehan, K. H. (1998). The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview: the development and validation of a structured diagnostic interview for DSM-IV and ICD-10. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 59, 22–33.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Soler, J., Valdepérez, A., Feliu-Soler, A., Pascual, J. C., Portella, M. J., Martín-Blanco, A., & Pérez, V. (2012). Effects of the dialectical behavioral therapy-mindfulness module on attention in patients with borderline personality disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 50, 150–157.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z., & Williams, J. M. G. (1995). How does cognitive therapy prevent depressive relapse and why should attentional control (mindfulness) training help? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33(1), 25–39.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: a psychometric analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 247–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tuna, E., & Bozo, Ö. (2014). Exploring the link between emotional and behavioral dysregulation: a test of the emotional cascade model. The Journal of General Psychology, 141(1), 1–17.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watkins, E., & Baracaia, S. (2001). Why do people ruminate in dysphoric moods? Personality and Individual Differences, 30(5), 723–734.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wupperman, P., Neumann, C. S., Whitman, J. B., & Axelrod, S. R. (2009). The role of mindfulness in borderline personality disorder features. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 197(10), 766–771.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wupperman, P., Neumann, C. S., & Axelrod, S. R. (2008). Do deficits in mindfulness underlie borderline personality features and core difficulties? Journal of Personality Disorders, 22(5), 466–482.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, X., Lynch, J. G., & Chen, Q. (2010). Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and truths about mediation analysis. Journal of Consumer Research, 37, 197–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by a Brain and Behavior Research Foundation NARSAD Young Investigator Grant, provided in conjunction with the Families for Borderline Personality Disorder Research (PI: Selby).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Tillett Hall 101 – Livingston Campus, 53 Avenue E., Piscataway, NJ, 08854-8040, USA

    Edward A. Selby, Kara B. Fehling, Emily A. Panza & Amy Kranzler

Authors
  1. Edward A. Selby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kara B. Fehling
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Emily A. Panza
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Amy Kranzler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edward A. Selby.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Selby, E.A., Fehling, K.B., Panza, E.A. et al. Rumination, Mindfulness, and Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms. Mindfulness 7, 228–235 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-015-0432-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-015-0432-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation