The relationship between childhood maltreatment and cluster B personality disorders: a systematic review 10.55131/jphd/2026/240124
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Childhood maltreatment (CM) is known as a significant risk factor in the development of cluster B personality disorder (PD), which can lead to significant distress and functional impairment. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and cluster B PDs. We obtained studies from Google Scholar, PubMed Central, SpringerLink, EBSCOHost, and ScienceDirect from 2015 to July 2024 using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) 2020 as the guideline. The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms of "childhood maltreatment," "personality disorders," "cluster B personality," "borderline," "antisocial," "histrionic," and "narcissistic" were used for conducting a systematic search. The included studies concentrated on individuals with cluster B PDs who had experienced maltreatment as children (CM). The risk of bias was assessed using the New Ottawa Scale. The PROSPERO registration number for this systematic review is CRD42024607386, which included 18 studies that were conducted in various countries. The studies included 11 cross-sectional, 1 case-control, 3 cohort, and 3 longitudinal designs, with sample sizes ranging from 78 to 36,309 participants. The results showed a strong association between CM and cluster B PDs development. Abuse and neglect experiences were correlated with an increased risk of developing PDs such as narcissistic, borderline, antisocial, and histrionic types. In this systematic review, CM was strongly associated with the development of Cluster B PDs.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
World Health Organization. Child Maltreatment. WHO [Internet]. 2012 [Cited 2024 Sep 21]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/child-maltreatment
Wang WZ, Cui Y, Hu Q, Wei YY. Childhood maltreatment and personality disorders in adolescents and adults with psychotic or non-psychotic disorders. Front Psychiatry 2021 March;15.
Ekselius L. Personality disorder: a disease in disguise. Ups J Med Sci 2018 Dec;123(4):194-204.
Jemal M, Tessema W, Agenagnew. Cluster B personality disorders and its associated factors among psychiatric outpatients in Southwest Ethiopia: institutional-based cross-sectional study. BMC Psychiatry 2022 July;22.
Chapman J, Jamil RT, Fleisher C, Torrico TJ. Borderline Personality Disorder. StatPearls [Internet]. 2024 [Cited 2024 Sep 14]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430883/
Cailhol L, Pelletier E, Rochette L, Laporte L, David P, Villeneuve É, et al. Prevalence, Mortality, and Health Care Use among Patients with Cluster B Personality Disorders Clinically Diagnosed in Quebec: A Provincial Cohort Study, 2001-2012. Can J Psychiatry 2017 April;62(5).
Solmi M, Dragioti E, Croatto G, Radua J, Borgwardt S, Carvalho AF, et al. Risk and Protective Factors for Personality Disorders: An Umbrella Review of Published Meta-Analyses of Case–Control and Cohort Studies. Front Psychiatry 2021 Sep;12.
Reising K, Farrington DP, Ttofi MM, Piquero AR, Coid JW. Childhood risk factors for personality disorder symptoms related to violence. Aggres Violent Behav 2019;49.
Page MJ, McKenzie JE, Bossuyt PM, Boutron I, Hoffmann TC, Mulrow CD, et al. The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ [Internet]. 2021 [Cited 2024 Sep 21]. Available from: https://www.bmj.com/content/ 372/bmj.n71
GA Wells, B Shea, D O’Connell, J Peterson, V Welch, M Losos, P Tugwell. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies in meta-analyses. Department of Epidemiology and Commuunity Medicine, University of Ottawa. 2011.
Kronick R. AHRQ’s Role in Improving Quality, Safety, and Health System Performance. Public Health Rep. 2016 Apr;131(2):229–32.
Gobin RL, Reddy MK, Zlotnick C, Johnson JE. Lifetime trauma victimization and PTSD in relation to psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder in a sample of incarcerated women and men. Int J Prison Health 2015;11(2):64-74.
Infurna MR, Brunner R, Holz B, Parzer P, Giannone F, Reichl C, et al. The Specific Role of Childhood Abuse, Parental Bonding, and Family Functioning in Female Adolescents With Borderline Personality Disorder. J Pers Disord 2016 Apr;13(2).
Jopling EN, Khalid-Khan S, Chandrakumar SF, Segal SC. A retrospective chart review: adolescents with borderline personality disorder, borderline personality traits, and controls. Int J Adolesc Med Health 2016.
Taillieu TL, Brownridge DA, Sareen J, Afifi TO. Childhood emotional maltreatment and mental disorders: Results from a nationally representative adult sample from the United States. Child Abuse Negl 2016;59:1-12.
Turner S, Taillieu T, Cheung K, Afifi TO. The relationship between childhood sexual abuse and mental health outcomes among males: Results from a nationally representative United States sample. Child Abuse Negl 2017;66:64-72.
Hock RS, Bryce CP, Fischer L, First MB, Fitzmaurice GM, Costa PT, Galler JR. Childhood malnutrition and maltreatment are linked with personality disorder symptoms in adulthood: Results from a Barbados lifespan cohort. Psychiatry Res 2018 Nov;269:301-8.
Afifi OT, Fortier J, Sareen J, Tailloeu T. Associations of Harsh Physical Punishment and Child Maltreatment in Childhood With Antisocial Behaviors in Adulthood. JAMA Netw Open 2019;2(1).
Turniansky H, Ben-Dor D, Krivoy A, Weizman A, Shoval G. A history of prolonged childhood sexual abuse is associated with more severe clinical presentation of borderline personality disorder in adolescent female inpatients – A naturalistic study. Child Abuse Negl 2019 Dec;98.
Danese A, Widom CS. Objective and subjective experiences of child maltreatment and their relationships with psychopathology. Nat Hum Behav 2020;4:811-8.
Geselowitz B, Whalen DJ, Tillman R, Barch DM, Luby JL, Vogel A. Preschool Age Predictors of Adolescent Borderline Personality Symptoms. J Am Acad Child Psychiatry 2021 May;60(5):612-22.
Schie CC, Jarman HL, Huxley E, Grenyer BFS. Narcissistic traits in young people: understanding the role of parenting and maltreatment. Borderline Personal Disord Emot Dysregul 2020 May;7(10).
Diiorio C, Norton S, Boudreaux MJ, Chang K, Michalski L, Cruitt P, et al. Borderline personality pathology, health behavior, and inflammation: Potential behavioral and biological mechanisms underlying childhood physical abuse and age-related disease. PsyArXiv 2021 March.
Krause-Utz A, Martens LJ, Renn JB, Lucke P, Wöhlke AZ, Schie CC, Mouthaan J. Childhood Maltreatment, Borderline Personality Features, and Coping as Predictors of Intimate Partner Violence. J Interpers Violence 2021 July;36(13-14):6693-721.
Xie GD, Chang JJ, Yuan MY, Wang GF, He Y, Chen SS, et al. Childhood abuse and borderline personality disorder features in Chinese undergraduates: the role of self-esteem and resilience. BMC Psychiatry 2021;21.
Kanj G, Hallit S, Obeid S. The relationship between childhood emotional abuse and borderline personality disorder: the mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation among Lebanese adults. Borderline Personal Disord Emot Dysregul 2023 Nov;10.
O’Grady SM, Hinshaw SP. Developmental predictors of young adult borderline personality disorder: a prospective, longitudinal study of females with and without childhood ADHD. BMC Psychiatry 2023 Feb;23.
Schulze A, Cloos L, Zdravkovic M, Lis S, Krause-Utz A. On the interplay of borderline personality features, childhood trauma severity, attachment types, and social support. Borderline Personal Disord Emot Dysregul 2022 Dec;9.
Wu Y, Zheng Y, Wang J, Zhang T. Specific type of childhood trauma and borderline personality disorder in Chinese patients. Front Psychiatry 2022 July;13.
Lopes AI, Leal J, Sani AI. Parental Mental Health Problems and the Risk of Child Maltreatment: The Potential Role of Psychotherapy. Societies 2021;11(3).
Sun Y. The Link of Childhood Abuse and Personality Pathology. IJEHSS 2023;8:175-80.
Bozzatello P, Rocca P, Baldassarri L, Bosia M, Bellino S. The Role of Trauma in Early Onset Borderline Personality Disorder: A Biopsychosocial Perspective. Front Psychiatry 2021 Sep;12.
Yuan Y, Lee H, Newhill CE, et al. Differential associations between childhood maltreatment types and borderline personality disorder from the perspective of emotion dysregulation. Bord Personal Disord Emot Dysregul 2023;10(4).
Linehan MM, Dexter-Mazza ET. Dialectical behavior therapy for borderline personality disorder. In: Barlow DH, editor. Clinical handbook of psychological disorders: A step-by-step treatment manual. New York: The Guilford Press; 2008;p.365-420.
Fariba KA, Gupta V, Torrico TJ, Kass E. Personality Disorder. StatPearls [Internet]. 2024 [Cited 2024 Sep 21]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556058/
Chapman J, Jamil RT, Fleisher C, Torrico TJ. Borderline Personality Disorder. StatPearls [Internet]. 2024 [Cited 2024 Sep 21]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556058/
Kaess M, Brunner R, Chanen A. Borderline personality disorder in adolescence. Pediatrics. 2014 Oct;134(4):782-93.
Stepp SD, Lazarus SA. Identifying a borderline personality disorder prodrome: Implications for community screening. Personal Ment Health. 2017 Aug;11(3):195-205.
Bozzatello P, Garbarini C, Rocca P, Bellino S. Borderline Personality Disorder: Risk Factors and Early Detection. Diagnostics. 2021 Nov;11(11).
Jeung H, Herpertz AC. Impairments of Interpersonal Functioning: Empathy and Intimacy in Borderline Personality Disorder. Psychopathology. 2014;47(4):220-34.
Drews A, Fertuck EA, Koenig J, Kaess M, Arntz A. Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning in borderline personality disorder: A meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2019 Jan;96:316-34.
Thomas N, Gurvich C, Kulkani J. Borderline personality disorder, trauma, and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat 2019 Sep;15:2601-12.
Cattane N, Rossi R, Lanfredi M, Cattaneo A. Borderline personality disorder and childhood trauma: exploring the affected biological systems and mechanisms. BMC Psychiatry 2017;17.
