L'enfant borderline en devenir II : validation préliminaire de l'Échelle de traits de personnalité limite pour enfants

Abstract

Objectives The Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a severe psychopathology related to great personal and family distress, which aetiology goes back to childhood. Empirical data supports a certain temporal stability of personality traits from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. Several authors argue that it is possible to identify in children and adolescents personality traits that could be associated with the characteristics of BPD observed in adulthood. However, only few instruments have been developed to assess child and adolescent traits associated with BPD. This article aims to present the results of the first validity study of the French version of the Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children (BPFS-C).Method The French version of the instrument, which has been developed using translation/back-translation was administered to 262 children, aged 9 to 12 years old (M = 10.52; ÉT = 0.96), attending regular schools in Quebec (55.70% were girls). Forty-three bilingual children (M = 10.65, SD = 0.98; 60.50% were girls) completed the two versions of the questionnaire (English and French), on a one-week interval. In addition, 23 English-speaking children from Quebec (M = 10.42, SD = 1.12) completed the original version of the questionnaire.Results The first validity study of the French version of the instrument shows a very satisfactory internal consistency. The correlations between the English and French versions of the instrument are significant. The principal component analysis revealed a four component model that have similarities with the four subscales of the English version, but differs in the distribution of items originally belonging to the subscale Identity problems of the BPFS-C.Conclusions The results of the first validity study of the French version of the instrument are promising. However, further research is needed in order to demonstrate the temporal stability as well as the construct validity of this measure. The instrument should also be validated with children from a clinical population with a higher preponderance of biological and environmental risk factors associated with the development of BPD. Finally, it would be interesting to establish the standardized values of the instrument allowing clinicians to identify which scores can be considered normal and which may indicate a strong presence of borderline personality traits. The identification of personality traits and behaviours associated with BPD in children and adolescents could promote prospective research and increase knowledge about the aetiology, characteristics, and trajectory of BPD throughout child development.