Comparison Of Emotional Intelligence In Young Male Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder Or Traits And Healthy Controls

Emotional quotient is multifaceted and examines different aspects of emotional and social intelligence. We tried to compare emotional quotient among young patients with borderline personality disorder or traits and healthy controls. A cross-sectional study was performed with three samples in a teaching hospital affiliated with a University of Medical Sciences. In total, 90 people were assigned to three groups of borderline personality, borderline personality trait, and healthy control, each including 30 male participants. Mean (SD) ages were 22.4 (1.7), 22.8 (1.3), and 22.3 (1.3) years, respectively. We measured the scores of the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (the Bar-On EQ-i). There were statistically significant differences in mean scores of all metafactorial components of EQ-i among the groups (all ANOVA tests p < .001). Posthoc comparisons showed that except for stress management, borderline personality disorder and control groups differed significantly regarding the metafactors (intrapersonal, interpersonal, adaptability, and general mood). For patients with a borderline personality trait, all the components differed significantly from control, except for interpersonal EQ. Also, there was a significant difference in mean total scores among the groups (p < .001). In addition, based on a discriminant analysis including all 15 factors of EQ, a support vector machine classification showed that EQ-i was able to accurately recognize the three groups (overall accuracy = 92% [CI: 76%-99%], the no information rate = 0.56 [p < .001], and kappa = 0.88). The five metafactorial components of the Bar-On EQ-i are different among patients with borderline personality disorder or traits and healthy people. The fifteen factorial components of Bar-On EQ-i have the potential to differentiate borderline, borderline traits, and healthy people using classification methods.