PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS, BORDERLINE PERSONALITY FEATURES, AND COGNITIVE EMOTION REGULATION AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS

Abstract

Medical students are particularly vulnerable to psychological distress due to the demanding and high-pressure nature of their training. The current study investigated the relationship between psychological distress, borderline personality features, and cognitive emotion regulation among medical students. The objectives were: (1) to examine whether borderline personality features predict psychological distress; (2) to determine whether maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing, and other-blame) predict psychological distress; and (3) to assess differences in terms of gender in borderline personality features. A correlational research design was used. The sample consisted of 500 MBBS students (age range 18–30 years) selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected using the Psychological Distress Scale (Khalid, 2020), Borderline Personality Disorder Scale (Bano, 2020), and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, linear regression, and independent sample t-tests in SPSS-26. Results indicated that borderline personality features significantly predicted psychological distress (F = 234.8, p < .01). Maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies including self-blame (F = 63.6), rumination (F = 79.4), catastrophizing (F = 65.4), and other-blame (F = 31.7) also significantly and positively predicted psychological distress (p < .01). Moreover, there were significant differences in terms of gender on the variable of borderline personality features were found, among female students reported higher borderline personality features (M = 81.84) as compared to male students (M = 76.30, p < .05). Consequently, all the outcomes of the study highlighted the significance of early screening of borderline personality features and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies to alleviate psychological distress among medical students.