Fear of Pain, Cognitive Emotion Regulation, and Smoking in Girls with Borderline Traits

Abstract

Background: Borderline traits are associated with emotional instability, maladaptive coping, and impulsive behaviors. Pain perception and emotion regulation also play a role in substance use behaviors. However, it is unclear how individuals with high versus low borderline traits differ in fear of pain, emotion regulation, and cigarette (CU) and water-pipe use (WU). The present study investigates fear of low/severe pain, positive/negative cognitive emotion regulation (PER/NER), and cigarette/water-pipe use in a nonclinical sample of girls with high/low borderline traits.

Method: The study used nonequivalent groups design. Among 329 female university students, their scores on borderline personality scale were converted to Z-scores. Participants with Z ≥ +1 were assigned to the high trait group (n=46), and those with Z ≤ –1 were assigned to low trait group (n=46). The participants responded to Borderline Personality Scale, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Fear of Pain Questionnaire, and smoking component of Youth Risk Behavior Survey. MANOVA was used to compare the two groups on dependent variables.

Results: The results showed that mean fear of low pain (FLP) (F=12.89, p=0.001), negative emotion regulation (F=11.43, p=0.001), CU (F=20.46, p=0.001), and WU (F=18.96, p=0.001) in girls with high borderline trait were significantly higher than low borderline trait group. However, no differences were observed between the groups in the variables of fear of severe pain (FSP) and PER.

Conclusion: According to these results, frequent use of negative emotion regulation strategies and experience of low pain in girls with high borderline trait are associated with higher levels of smoking, suggesting that smoking may act as a maladaptive coping mechanism for negative emotions and physical discomfort