Research · Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 2026

Childhood trauma, emotional dysregulation and borderline personality symptoms

Q: Does childhood trauma cause borderline personality disorder?

This study can't show cause. It was correlational and measured symptoms in students, not diagnosed BPD. It found that childhood trauma was linked to more borderline personality symptoms and explained 19.8% of their variance on its own.

Q: Is emotional dysregulation the same as borderline personality disorder?

No. Emotional dysregulation is difficulty recognising, accepting and managing emotions. It is transdiagnostic: it shows up in anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, BPD and other conditions. BPD is a personality disorder that only a qualified clinician can diagnose. In this study, emotional dysregulation was the strongest predictor of borderline personality symptoms.

Q: What did the study find?

Among 200 female university students in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, childhood trauma explained 19.8% and emotional dysregulation 29.4% of the variance in borderline personality symptoms; together they explained 43.4%.

By Muskan Rashid (published as Muskan Rasheed), 4th of 6 authors · Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 41(1), 143–164 · doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2026.41.1.09

In short: among 200 female university students in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, those who reported more childhood trauma and more difficulty regulating their emotions also reported more borderline personality symptoms. Emotional dysregulation was the strongest predictor. Together, the two explained 43.4% of the variance in borderline personality symptoms. The design was correlational, so it shows a link, not a cause.

Key terms

Childhood trauma: Physical, sexual or emotional abuse, and emotional or physical neglect, in childhood. These are the five areas the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire measures.
Emotional dysregulation: Difficulty recognising, accepting and managing emotions, and using helpful ways to calm their strength or length. It also makes it harder to control impulses and stay on task when upset. It is not a diagnosis.
Borderline personality symptoms: Signs such as impulsivity, mood swings, fear of abandonment, unstable relationships, low self-esteem, self-harm, chronic emptiness and intense anger. Having some of these is not the same as having borderline personality disorder (BPD), which only a qualified clinician can diagnose.

What we asked

Do childhood trauma and emotional dysregulation predict borderline personality symptoms in young women at university in Pakistan? The study grew out of my BS research thesis in Applied Psychology at Riphah International University, Islamabad, which was graded A+.

Who took part

200 female undergraduate students, aged 18 to 25 (59.5% aged 18–21, 40.5% aged 22–25)
Universities in Islamabad and Rawalpindi
Purposive sampling, a non-clinical sample; students who reported a diagnosed psychiatric disorder were not included
All questionnaires in English; data collected over about one and a half months

How we measured it

The three questionnaires
Measures	Questionnaire	Items	Reliability here (α)
Childhood trauma	Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Bernstein et al., 2003	28	.74
Emotional dysregulation	Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Gratz & Roemer, 2004	36	.82
Borderline personality symptoms	Borderline Personality Questionnaire (BPQ), Poreh et al., 2006	80	.89

Cross-sectional correlational design, analysed with Pearson correlation and regression in IBM SPSS 26
Participants gave informed consent, got a warning before emotionally difficult questions, could skip or stop at any time, and were told where to find counselling

What we found

Variance in borderline personality symptoms explained
Predictor	Variance explained	p
Childhood trauma alone	19.8%	.004
Emotional dysregulation alone	29.4%	< .001
Both together	43.4%

All three were positively related. Emotional dysregulation had a strong positive correlation with borderline symptoms (p < .001).
Childhood trauma and emotional dysregulation were moderately related (p = .007).
Emotional dysregulation was the most powerful predictor of borderline personality symptoms.

Does childhood trauma cause borderline personality disorder?

This study can't answer that. It measured symptoms in students, not diagnosed borderline personality disorder, at one point in time. What it shows is that trauma and difficulty managing emotions go together with more borderline symptoms, and that difficulty managing emotions matters most. That points to emotion regulation as something worth working on.

Is emotional dysregulation the same as BPD?

No. Emotional dysregulation is a pattern, not a diagnosis, and it shows up across many conditions, including anxiety, PTSD and bipolar disorder as well as BPD. Borderline personality disorder is a wider, lasting pattern that a clinician diagnoses. In this study, difficulty with emotions was simply the strongest of the two predictors of borderline personality symptoms.

Limits of the study

Women only, and a non-clinical sample, so the results may not apply to men or to clinical groups.
Self-report questionnaires, which can be affected by memory and by wanting to answer in a socially acceptable way.
The severity and types of childhood trauma were not measured separately.

What it means in practice

We recommend culturally competent, trauma-informed practice in universities, and emotion regulation training for young people. Future studies should use more varied samples, more than one way of measuring, and take differences in trauma severity into account.

This page summarises published research. It is not a diagnosis or medical advice. If you are struggling, please speak to a qualified mental health professional.

Questions

Does childhood trauma cause borderline personality disorder?

This study can't show cause. It was correlational and measured symptoms in students, not diagnosed BPD. It found that childhood trauma was linked to more borderline personality symptoms and explained 19.8% of their variance on its own.

Is emotional dysregulation the same as borderline personality disorder?

No. Emotional dysregulation is difficulty recognising, accepting and managing emotions. It is transdiagnostic: it shows up in anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, BPD and other conditions. BPD is a personality disorder that only a qualified clinician can diagnose. In this study, emotional dysregulation was the strongest predictor of borderline personality symptoms.

What did the study find?

Among 200 female university students in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, childhood trauma explained 19.8% and emotional dysregulation 29.4% of the variance in borderline personality symptoms; together they explained 43.4%.

Authors

Ujala Tahseen, Urooj Tara, Eiman Waheed, Muskan Rasheed, Manahil Naveed and Maryam Zahra, all at Riphah International University, Islamabad.

Cite this paper

APA 7

Tahseen, U., Tara, U., Waheed, E., Rasheed, M., Naveed, M., & Zahra, M. (2026). Childhood trauma and emotional dysregulation as predictors of borderline personality symptoms among female university students. Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 41(1), 143–164. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2026.41.1.09

BibTeX

@article{tahseen2026childhood,
  title   = {Childhood Trauma and Emotional Dysregulation as Predictors of Borderline Personality Symptoms among Female University Students},
  author  = {Tahseen, Ujala and Tara, Urooj and Waheed, Eiman and Rasheed, Muskan and Naveed, Manahil and Zahra, Maryam},
  journal = {Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research},
  volume  = {41},
  number  = {1},
  pages   = {143--164},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.33824/PJPR.2026.41.1.09}
}

Read the paper: doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2026.41.1.09 · journal page

About me

I'm a psychology graduate finishing an MS in Clinical Psychology at SZABIST University, Islamabad. I now use the same habits (reading carefully, scoring against fixed criteria, checking sources) to evaluate AI answers, especially on sensitive mental-health topics. More about me.