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The relationship between emotional impulsivity (Urgency), aggression, and symptom dimensions in patients with borderline personality disorder

Martin, Sylvia
; 
Del Monte, Jonathan
; 
Howard, Richard C
Abstract
BACKGROUND: A hallmark of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a disposition to anger, irritability and aggression. High impulsivity, particularly high emotional impulsivity (urgency), has been associated with aggression in BPD patients. AIMS: This study aimed to explore, in a sample of patients with BPD, the subtleties of the relationship between borderline symptomatology, different facets of impulsivity, and an aggressive disposition. METHODS: Two hundred and twenty patients with a DSM-5 (Sect. 2) diagnosis of BPD were assessed on measures of impulsivity (UPPS model), aggression (Brief Aggression Questionnaire, BAQ-12) and borderline symptoms (Borderline Personality Questionnaire, BPQ). RESULTS: Results showed: (i) there was a close relationship between BPD symptomatology and an aggressive predisposition measured by BAQ-12; (ii) emptiness and intense anger were the BPD symptom dimensions most significantly associated with aggression (iii) both negative and positive urgency, and to a lesser extent lack of premeditation and sensation seeking, mediated the relationship between borderline symptom dimensions and aggression. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION: Results suggest a close relationship between almost all dimensions of BPD, but especially anger, and impulsive aggression. They further suggest that urgency, particularly negative urgency, mediates this relationship. Future studies will need to parse aggression into motivationally distinct types.
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Date
2025
Type
Article
Subject
Aggression
 Anger
 Borderline personality disorder
 Emotional regulation
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NottsHC Personality Disorders
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Citation
Sylvia, M., Del Monte, J. & Howard, R. (2025). The relationship between emotional impulsivity (Urgency), aggression, and symptom dimensions in patients with borderline personality disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 12 (1), pp.19.
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https://mider.dspace7.openrepository.com/handle/20.500.12904/19716
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Springer
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© The Author(s) 2025, corrected publication 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecom mons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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