Religion/spirituality status and borderline personality symptomatology among outpatients in an internal medicine clinic.

Objective: This study was designed to assess religion/spirituality (RS) status over the preceding 12 months in relationship to borderline personality symptomatology status.

Methods: Using a cross-sectional consecutive sample of internal medicine outpatients and a self-report survey methodology, we examined RS using the 12-item Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp-12), and borderline personality symptomatology using two self-report measures, the borderline personality scale of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 and the Self-Harm Inventory.

Results: The majority of FACIT-Sp-12 scales as well as the overall FACIT-Sp-12 score demonstrated an inverse relationship with scores on the individual measures for borderline personality symptomatology as well as a combined measure of such symptoms (individuals who scored positively on both measures). In other words, lower RS was identified in participants with higher levels of borderline personality symptomatology.

Conclusions: According to findings, compared to participants without borderline personality symptomatology, those with such symptomatology evidenced statistically significantly lower RS on most study scales as well as the overall FACIT-Sp-12 score. This suggests that individuals with borderline personality symptomatology have lower overall levels of RS than individuals without this type of psychopathology.