Psychometric properties of the Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children-11 (BPFSC-11) in a sample of community dwelling Italian adolescents

The aims of the current study were to assess the psychometric properties of the Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children-11 (BPFSC-11) in adolescence. In particular, we aim at evaluating: the internal consistency and six-month test-retest reliability of the Italian translation of the BPFSC-11, its factor structure, and its convergent validity. Eight hundred five community dwelling adolescents were administered the Italian translations of the BPFSC-11 and Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+(PDQ-4+) Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) scale. The BPFSC-11 showed adequate internal consistency (Cronbach’s a = .78) and moderate six-month test-retest stability. Although confirmatory factor analysis did not support a one-factor model of the BPFSC-11 items, a bi-factor model (RMSEA = .04) showed that all BPFSC-11 items loaded significantly onto a general common factor, with two specific factors capturing largely residual variance due to distribution artifacts. In this study, the bivariate correlation between the BPFSC-11 and the PDQ-4+BPD scale was .64 (p < .001). Finally, the BPFSC-11 showed gender invariance across items. In summary, our findings support the reliability and validity of the BPFSC-11 as a measure of self-reported borderline personality features in community dwelling adolescents.