2 - (SYM 24) Inter- and Intra-personal Emotion Differentiation and Its Relation to Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms in Romantic Couples

Emotion Differentiation (ED), defined as the ability to identify one’s own emotions in a nuanced manner across emotional experiences, has been associated with adaptive functioning, but has singularly been explored in relation to the self. We theorize that ED does not just occur intrapersonally but interpersonally as well. We propose a new construct, Interpersonal ED, defined as recognizing the distinct emotions of others across emotional experiences. This new construct may have significant implications for mental health and relational functioning, specifically for individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) symptoms. Indeed, BPD is related to emotion dysregulation, elevated emotional intensity, and poor interpersonal functioning which could all be connected to interpersonal emotion processing such as Interpersonal ED. Therefore, the present study aims to explore Inter- and Intra-personal ED as important mechanisms that may be strongly related to BPD-symptoms in couples. Seventy-seven romantic couples completed a three-week daily diary study in which they reported on their own BPD symptoms and BPD symptom categories including identity disturbance, affective instability, negative relationships, and suicidality at baseline. Each day, participants reported on their own and their partner’s emotional experience. We calculated average emotional intensity and, utilizing intra-class correlation coefficients, calculated indices of Intra- and Inter-personal Negative Emotion Differentiation (NED) and Positive Emotion Differentiation (PED). We used a simple moderation model with emotion processing as the predictor, BPD symptoms as the outcome, and average emotion intensity as the moderator. We then repeated this model multiple times to see how Interpersonal NED, Interpersonal PED, NED, and PED each predicted self and partner total BPD symptoms and BPD symptom categories in the context of average emotional intensity. Analyses highlighted how Inter- and Intra-personal NED and PED were uniquely related to self and partner BPD symptoms and specific symptom categories at varying levels of average negative and positive daily emotional intensity. Findings indicate the important role Interpersonal ED and ED plays within individuals and across romantic partners in relation to BPD symptoms. These findings have significant implications for individual and couples therapy and the importance of integrating skills related to interpersonal ED and ED, especially for individuals and romantic partners experiencing BPD symptoms.