Using a measure of cognitive distortion to examine the relationship between thought suppression and borderline personality features: A multi-method investigation

• Examined cognitive distortions and thought suppression related to BPD features.
• Used multiple methods to study thought suppression associated with BPD features.
• Adapted a laboratory task to assess cognitive distortions in BPD.
• Analyses show thought suppression in response to distortions in high BPD features.
• BPD-specific distortions may increase when thought suppression is disrupted.

Previous research has demonstrated that thought suppression is an effortful emotion regulation strategy frequently used to avoid unwanted thoughts or emotions. This is a maladaptive strategy because it paradoxically increases the frequency of the unwanted thoughts or emotions. Although thought suppression has been linked to borderline personality disorder (BPD), most research has relied on self-report measures. This study employed a laboratory task (the Scrambled Sentences Test) assessing BPD-specific cognitive distortions to examine relationships between thought suppression and BPD features in a sample of undergraduate students (n = 181) including many with high levels of BPD features. Severity of BPD features was significantly correlated with the tendency to unscramble strings of words to create BPD-consistent sentences. This effect was more pronounced when the task was completed under a cognitive load (remembering a 6-digit number). Mediational models using bootstrapping suggested that this relationship may be explained by the tendency to engage in thought suppression. These results offer multi-method evidence for the proclivity to suppress unwanted and distorted cognitions in BPD.