Introduction

Borderline Personality Organization constitutes a central feature of partner violent men profile. One of the most used instruments to assess borderline personality in partner violent men is the Borderline Personality Organization Scale (BPO; Oldham, Clarkin, Appelbaum, Carr, Kernberg, Lotterman, & Haas, 1985) that define BPO by a combination of identity diffusion, impaired reality testing and the use of primitive defenses.

Objectives

This study analyzes internal consistency and convergent and discriminant validity of the BPO in a Spanish sample of 643 men in psychological treatment after having been convicted of partner violence.

Design/Methodology

The internal consistency of the scale was calculated with Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. In addition, Pearson correlation coefficients between the criterion variable scores and the subscales and the total BPO scale were calculated to evaluate the convergent validity of the BPO. To assess discriminant validity, we performed analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post-hoc comparisons (Bonferroni) to verify the existence of differences in the BPO scores according to age.

Results

BPO scale has a good internal consistency (alpha = .91 for the total scale). Regarding convergent validity, the results show significant and positive correlations between the subscales and the total BPO scale and other instruments measuring borderline personality, impulsiveness, and psychopathy: the Self-report Assessment of the DSM-IV R Personality Disorders (SCID-II; First, Gibbon, Spitzer, Williams, & Smith, 1999), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (Barratt, 1995), and Levenson Primary and Secondary Psychopathy Scale (Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick, 1995). Finally, the BPO presents evidence of discriminant validity, finding that total scale (F(2,640) = 5.40, p<.01), identity diffusion (F(2,640) = 3.49, p<.05), and primitive defenses (F(2,640) = 3.78, p<.05) decrease with age.

Conclusions

BPO is a suitable instrument to assess borderline personality organization in partner violent men.