Daily relational affective and behavioral dynamics, rejection sensitivity, and borderline personality disorder traits

Objectives. Adopting a dynamic perspective, this study examines the relations between behavioral and affective states, BPD traits, and components of rejection sensitivity. Methods. A sample of 110 college students (M age = 23.81, SD = 4.35) filled in a series of questionnaires assessing borderline personality traits and rejection sensitivity. Then they completed an Ecological Momentary Assessment on interpersonal relationships rating their behavior and affective state 3 times per day for 7 days following a social interaction of 5 minutes or more. Results. Multilevel analyses showed that BPD traits and rejection sensitivity influenced behavioral and affective states within-day variabilities in terms of arousal (submissive vs. dominant and passive vs. active, respectively), but not in term of valence (cold vs. warm and sad vs. happy, respectively). Specifically, within-day affective state variability was affected by the emotional components of rejection sensitivity (anxiety and anger) and not by the cognitive component (rejection expectation), regardless of BPD trait; within-day behavior variability was influenced by anxiety related to rejection independently from BPD trait, and by anger related to rejection as well as expectation in interaction with BPD. Conclusion. These results shed light on the specific role of different components of rejection sensitivity in shaping – together with BPD traits – everyday affective and behavioral dynamics connected to interpersonal relationships.