Borderline Personality Disorder in Pandemic Situation in Indonesia

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) feel more stressed than others during the pandemic. Several researchers conducted from the West have concluded that the factors causing BPD consist of neurobiology, childhood trauma, attachment coping and social support. These results were different from the research conducted in Indonesia. Therefore, it’s necessary to re-examine the factors causing BPD as knowing the causative factors of BPD is very important for prevention.

This research had two stages: (1) Mapping the factors causing BPD (2) Knowing the proactive coping used by participants

Data collection in Study 1 used four scales : BPD scale, Childhood Adversity, Proactive Coping, and Social Support. There were 180 participants in this study. Hypothetical analysis was performed with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) .

Online interviews were conducted in Study 2 with six participants who were previously known to have BPD based on the results of the BPD scale

Study 1 : Childhood adversity, social support, and proactive coping play a role in BPD. However, not all factors play a direct role in BPD. Proactive coping (PC) had a direct role in BPD. Study 2: The participants do not use proactive coping but use defense mechanisms, such as repression, regression and denial. They tend to be more depressed so they don’t use proactive coping as usual.

Childhood adversity, social support, and proactive coping play a role in BPD. However, only PC had a direct role. The better the PC owned, the fewer BPD criteria individuals have. The coping strategies participants carried out before the pandemic were different from those applied during the pandemic.