Personality disorders and their association with adverse childhood events.

Purpose of review: Theoretical models of personality disorders (PDs) highlight the role of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the development and maintenance of personality pathology. This review presents recent studies on the associations between childhood adversity and PDs, while discussing mechanisms and factors that impact these relationships.

Recent findings: Studies point to small to moderate associations between childhood adversity and cluster A, cluster B and cluster C PDs, and some research suggests that childhood adversity could be a predictor for the onset and development of personality pathology. Most research focuses on borderline PD, while research on other PDs is limited. Some mechanisms that explain these associations have been proposed, with the literature investigating emotion dysregulation, dissociation, avoidance or psychosocial dysfunction as mediators.

Summary: The consistent associations between ACEs and PDs seems to point that childhood adversity could be a transdiagnostic risk factor for PDs, but research warrants further prospective investigations for causal conclusions, and calls for future research to investigate potential mediators and moderators more thoroughly.