A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Coimbra in Portugal postulates that the feeling of self-disgust in teenagers may presage them developing borderline personality disorder, or BPD, in the future.
According to Forbes, the study’s authors explained that they opted to study borderline symptoms in adolescence because, while "personality disorders are usually diagnosed in adults, they present a developmental path and initial symptoms that can be detected at early ages".
The participants of the research were 158 adolescents whose development the team “assessed in three moments with a six-month interval”.
During the course of their study, the researchers established that self-disgust may be an “important risk factor in developing borderline personality disorder”, as the magazine put it.
"If adolescents view themselves as undesirable, repulsive and bad, they have increased risk to grow borderline symptoms", they warned. "Our results raise evidence that self-disgust should be targeted by psychological interventions to prevent adolescents’ borderline features from evolving into a personality disorder".
The team also said that they hope to devise a group intervention programme that would be implemented in schools, and which "would be designed to teach practical skills and cultivate self-compassion in adolescents".
"We believe that a kinder and more positive self-relationship could counteract the harmful effect of self-disgust and may help prevent the development of Borderline Personality Disorder", the researchers elaborated. "Prevention is better than cure".