Katherine Dixon-Gordon

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Associate) at University of Massachusetts Amherst

This pilot study examined the effects of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) emotion regulation (ER) skills training for borderline personality disorder (BPD). To date, studies have yet to reveal whether specific DBT skill modules uniquely improve ER problems - one of the putative factors considered to underlie clinical problems in BPD. This prelimi...

Despite the growing consensus that negative reinforcement in the form of emotional relief plays a key role in the maintenance of deliberate self-harm (DSH), most of the research in this area has relied exclusively on self-report measures of the perceived motives for and emotional consequences of DSH. Thus, the primary aim of this study was to exten...

Emerging research suggests that two features of emotional contexts (emotion intensity and emotion type) predict spontaneous use of emotion regulation (ER) strategies. However, prior work has not examined the interactive effects of emotion intensity and emotion type on the selection of specific ER strategies. This is a noteworthy omission because in...

Psychiatric concerns are prevalent among emergency department (ED) patients. Negative attitudes toward psychiatric conditions can adversely influence care provision. In the present study, we examined (a) correlates of explicit and implicit negative attitudes among ED providers, (b) the effect of psychiatric status on hypothetical care decisions, an...

With joint interpersonal and affective impairments associated with personality disorders, understanding the intersection of these processes in these disorders is a critical emerging trajectory for research. An emerging line of research has been devoted to understanding interpersonal emotion regulation processes in personality disorders. This relati...

Racial minorities are expected to be a majority of the U.S. population by 2044. We examined predictors of Americans’ perceptions towards this racial demographic shift (RDS), how accurately they estimate others’ perceptions, and whether an intervention corrects people’s misperceptions. In Study 1, in a nationally representative sample (N=1,600), mos...

Protecting one’s child and ensuring that they have a good life is a fundamental concern for parents. Due to this inherent concern about the future well-being of their children, a widely held assumption is that parents should care more about future-generation-impacting societal problems such as climate change relative to non-parents. Research on thi...

Introduction People who identify as sexual minorities (SM) report higher rates of nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) than heterosexual individuals. One explanatory factor that may be important in this relation is self‐defective beliefs. The present study examined the role of self‐defective beliefs in the link between sexual orientation and NSSI. Metho...

Introduction Nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) often helps regulate affect, yet there is conflicting research on the immediate affective outcomes of pain and NSSI. People also engage in NSSI for intrapersonal and interpersonal reasons. It is unclear whether affective shifts post‐pain task differentiate individuals with and without NSSI histories, and...

Emotion dysregulation is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, there is a dearth of literature examining the association between the dysregulation of positive emotions and BPD. The present study assesses the reciprocal and longitudinal associations between positive emotion dysregulation and BPD features. Participants wer...

Background: Literature underscores the importance of emotion dysregulation in clinical research. However, one critical limitation of the existing investigations in this area involves the lack of psychometrically valid measures for assessing emotion dysregulation in individuals' daily lives. This study examined the factor structure and psychometric...

Extant psychological research has highlighted that perceiving the world as a dangerous or as a competitive place influences major sociopolitical attitudes and ideologies. However, considerably less emphasis has been placed on how these perceptions change over time. We hypothesized that such perceptions of the world might be particularly susceptible...

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with greater substance use. Emotion dysregulation has been implicated in both BPD and substance use, yet there is limited research examining the role of emotion dysregulation in the BPD–substance use relation. We examined the independent and interactive associations of BPD symptoms and emotion dys...

Background: Emotional suppression is a clinically significant aspect of emotion regulation with robust associations to psychopathology, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Despite the fast-growing body of literature highlighting the role of positive emotion regulation difficulties in the development and maintenance of PTSD, extant work...

Eating disorders (EDs) are associated with emotion regulation difficulties. However, most studies have examined intrapersonal emotion regulation difficulties and strategies without consideration of interpersonal emotion regulation (IER). Thus, it remains unknown whether intrinsic IER (i.e., how people regulate their emotions through others) is asso...

Interpersonal difficulties are salient among those with a history of NSSI, preceding NSSI urges and behaviors. Yet, limited research has focused on identifying which aspects of interpersonal stress may confer risk for NSSI. The current study aimed to leverage data from two samples (combined n = 206; n = 114 with NSSI history) of participant-driven...

Background: The defective self model of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) theorizes that individuals who are highly self-critical are more likely to choose NSSI to regulate emotions. This model indirectly suggests that individuals who engage in NSSI may experience more self-conscious emotions in response to negative social feedback, increasing risk f...

Purpose of Review This manuscript aims to take stock of emotion dysregulation and personality disorder (PD) research, review key findings, and highlight future directions. Recent Findings Most emotion dysregulation research in PDs has focused on borderline personality disorder (BPD). BPD is characterized by high baseline negative emotion and the u...

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by instability in interpersonal, affective, cognitive, self-identity, and behavioral domains. For a BPD diagnosis, individuals must present at least five of nine symptoms, resulting in 256 possible symptom combinations; thus, individuals diagnosed with BPD can differ substantially. Specific sym...

In recent years, a number of prominent elected officials on both sides of the partisan divide have weighed in on the possibility of making Washington, D.C., the nation’s fifty-first state. While Democratic supporters of statehood for D.C. emphasize issues of equal representation, some Republican opponents have stressed the partisan and ideological...

This study investigated whether misalignment between an individual and their community in partisan identity predicted psychological and behavioral distancing from local COVID-19 norms. A nationally representative sample of Republicans and Democrats provided longitudinal data in April ( N = 3,492) and June 2020 ( N = 2,649). Democrats in Republican...

Despite recognition that borderline personality disorder (BPD) is one of the most stigmatized psychological disorders, destigmatization efforts have thus far focused on the views and actions of clinicians and the general public, neglecting the critical role that psychological science plays in perpetuating or mitigating stigma. This article was cata...

Direct and indirect body-focused self-damaging behaviors are highly prevalent and associated with negative outcomes. Despite progress in understanding the expected consequences (i.e., expectancies) that motivate individuals to engage in these behaviors, less is known about the co-occurrence of, and specific expectancies for, body-focused self-damag...

The goal of this research was to validate an Italian adaptation of the questionnaire Difficulties in Interpersonal Regulation of Emotions (DIRE) and to investigate its associations with psychopathology. An Italian sample (N = 630) completed the DIRE and the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). We tested the factorial structure of the DIRE using explorati...

Introduction: Evidence-based psychotherapies for borderline personality disorder (BPD) are lengthy, posing a barrier to their access. Brief psychotherapy may achieve comparable outcomes to long-term psychotherapy for BPD. Evidence is needed regarding the comparative effectiveness of short- versus long-term psychotherapy for BPD. Objective: The a...

Objectives Emotional and interpersonal dysfunction appears central to nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI), yet research examining the interplay of these factors among individuals with NSSI is limited. This study aimed to specify such associations before and after daily stressful events among individuals with (vs. without) NSSI. Methods Young adult part...

Introduction: People report multiple motives for nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), but few studies have examined how these motives relate to one another. This study identified person-centered classes of NSSI motives, their NSSI and psychopathological correlates, and their utility in predicting future NSSI across two samples. Methods: Participants...

Despite preliminary evidence that people with suicide attempt histories demonstrate deficits in processing feedback, no studies have examined the interrelations of learning from feedback and emotional state on suicide risk. This study examined the influence of suicide risk and negative emotions on learning accuracy and rates among individuals with...

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been shown to increase levels of psychological distress among healthcare workers. Little is known, however, about specific positive and negative individual and organizational factors that affect the mental health of emergency physicians (EP) during COVID-19. Our objective was to as...

Suicidal behaviors are increasingly prevalent among college students. Although emotion dysregulation is theorized to increase suicide risk, research supporting this relationship is mixed. Engagement in self-damaging behaviors may play a role in the relationship between emotion dysregulation and suicide risk, theoretically by increasing one's capabi...

On estime que 50 % à 60 % des adolescents qui ont recours aux services de santé mentale ambulatoires ont des pensées et des comportements suicidaires (STB) et que 22 % à 39 % des psychothérapeutes ambulatoires perdent un client par suicide au cours de leur carrière. Malgré l’omniprésence des pensées et comportements suicidaires dans les services am...

Background Adherence to COVID-19 social distancing guidelines varies across individuals. Purpose This study examined the relations of pseudoscientific and just world beliefs, generalized and institutional trust, and political party affiliation to adherence to COVID-19 social distancing guidelines over three months, as well as the explanatory role...

Background A fast-growing body of research provides support for the role of positive emotion dysregulation in the etiology and maintenance of a wide range of psychiatric difficulties and clinically relevant behaviors. However, this work has exclusively relied on the subjective assessment of positive emotion dysregulation. Advancing research, the cu...

Emotion dysregulation is associated with increased risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). However, research in this area has focused almost exclusively on dysregulation stemming from negative emotions. The present study aimed to address this gap in the literature by examining the associations between the...

Theories suggest that a transaction between child biological vulnerability and parent emotion socialization underlies the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD) features. Yet, few studies have examined the interaction between these factors prospectively in at-risk samples. Consequently, this study tested whether parental reactions to...

Background Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with emotional dysfunction and interpersonal sensitivity. Yet, little work has characterized how BPD features predicts emotional reactivity and emotion regulation behaviors in response to interpersonal stress relative to other forms of stress. Methods Participants were 152 university s...

Objective Although research has established a link between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs), little is known about factors that may accentuate this relation. This study evaluated the influences of negative and positive emotion dysregulation on the association between PTSD symptoms and STBs amo...

Objective Although once considered a defining feature of borderline personality disorder, research has found high rates of NSSI among individuals with other psychiatric disorders, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive disorders. A recent study from our research team found that lifetime PTSD and depressive disorders were a...

Background : Despite theories that negative reinforcement in the form of relief from negative emotions maintains nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), no studies have examined the extent to which specific emotional consequences of NSSI predict the maintenance of NSSI over time or explain the greater risk for NSSI found among individuals with borderline p...

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by both emotion regulation (ER) and interpersonal difficulties. Although the link between ER difficulties and interpersonal problems in BPD is well documented, less work has examined the directionality of these associations. The present study examined the temporal relationship between ER diffic...

Although diagnostically distinct, research indicates that antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) share common features, including anger impulses and emotion dysregulation. It is unclear, however, how these variables are expressed and experienced differentially. The current study sought to examine independen...

Objective This study examined the presence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a predictor of treatment response to dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) across the primary outcomes of interest within DBT (i.e., borderline personality disorder [BPD] symptoms, deliberate self‐harm, emotion regulation [ER] difficulties) and PTSD symptoms. Method...

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms and suicidal behaviors are prevalent among undergraduate students. Although rumination contributes to self-destructive behaviors in BPD, less research examines the role of rumination in distinct suicidal outcomes among individuals with BPD features instead focusing more on self-destructive behaviors as...

Existing literature indicates a theoretical and empirical relation between engagement in reckless behaviors and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Thus, the DSM‐5 revision of the PTSD nosology added a new “reckless or self‐destructive behavior” (RSDB) symptom (Criterion E2). The current study applied a network analytic approach to examine the it...

Although researchers have identified a number of factors that may motivate individuals to engage in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), few studies have examined whether motives for NSSI differ as a function of psychiatric diagnosis. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to examine motives for lifetime NSSI among individuals with a history of ps...

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has primarily been studied in the context of borderline personality disorder, with research demonstrating that NSSI is often used to obtain emotional relief. However, few studies have examined whether motivations for NSSI are comparable in other disorders associated with heightened rates of NSSI, including depressive...

Objective: Extant literature has generally conceptualized nonsuicidal self-injury severity in terms of its frequency, although more recently researchers have assessed nonsuicidal self-injury severity by the number of different methods used. There is limited evidence, however, regarding the interaction of these indices in the prediction of clinical...

To capture the functional role of reckless and self-destructive behaviors (RSDBs) in posttraumatic stress disorder’s (PTSD) symptomatology, the E2 symptom was added in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. However, the lack of a validated, comprehensive, and clinically useful measure is a significant barrier to t...

Within the U.S., risky sexual behavior (RSB) is the primary mode of HIV transmission. The role of emotion dysregulation in RSB has received growing attention over the past decade. However, this literature has been limited in its focus on emotion dysregulation stemming from negative (but not positive) emotions. The goal of the current study was to e...

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a disorder characterized by emotion regulation (ER) difficulties. Although research indicates that patterns of ER differ across racial groups, few studies have examined the role of race in the ER–BPD association. This study sought to address this gap. Participants in this study identified as either East Asia...

Objective: Emotion dysregulation is a transdiagnostic construct with relevance to a wide range of mental health outcomes. A growing literature highlights the contribution of positive emotion dysregulation to mental health outcomes. However, there remains limited understanding of the interplay of negative and positive emotion dysregulation on menta...

Although parent emotion socialization and child temperament are theorized to interact in the prediction of borderline personality disorder (BPD) features, few studies have directly examined these relationships. The present study examined whether parental emotion socialization interacted with behavioral ratings and physiological indicators of emotio...

Introduction: The co-occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol misuse is highly prevalent and clinically significant. Delineating mediators (i.e., emotion regulation) and moderators (i.e., gender) of this co-occurrence is critical to understanding underlying mechanisms of such comorbidity and intervention development/refinemen...

The co-occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)and substance use is clinically-relevant. Emotion dysregulation is one factor that has been shown to underlie this association. However, literature in this area has been limited in its exclusive focus on emotion dysregulation stemming from negative emotions. The goal of the current study was...

Background: The co-occurrence of depression and risky alcohol use is clinically relevant given their high rates of comorbidity and reciprocal negative impact on outcomes. Emotion dysregulation is one factor that has been shown to underlie this association. However, literature in this area has been limited in its exclusive focus on emotion dysregula...

Objectives Emotion dysregulation is a transdiagnostic factor central to the etiology and treatment of various clinical difficulties. Yet, research in this area has focused almost exclusively on emotion dysregulation stemming from negative emotions. The current study confirmed the factor structure of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale‐Posi...

Theories of borderline personality disorder (BPD) highlight the central role of emotional dysfunction in this disorder, with a particular emphasis on emotional reactivity and emotion regulation (ER) difficulties. However, research on emotion-related difficulties in BPD has produced mixed results, often related to the particular indices of emotional...

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often co-occurs with substance use (SU). Although there has been independent research on subgroups of participants based on their PTSD or SU responses, rarely are PTSD-SU typologies examined consistent with a precision medicine approach (and corresponding person-centered statistical approaches). The...

Limited research has examined associations between physiological reactivity and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), despite evidence that NSSI is often motivated by a desire to regulate internal states (Hamza et al. , 2013). Preliminary research examining physiological reactivity among self-injuring individuals has produced mixed results, with some stu...

Subjective and physiological measures provide complementary information about response to stress but little is known about age group differences in correspondence between these measures. This study compared age group coherence within and between subjective and physiological reactivity to a negative mood induction. We hypothesized that subjective an...

Emotion regulation difficulties have been theoretically and empirically linked to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Previous research, however, has focused almost exclusively on difficulties regulating negative emotions. In this study, we explored the nature of difficulties regulating positive emotions in PTSD. Participants were women who had e...

Despite literature highlighting the relevance of negative and positive emotions to risky behaviors, little research has examined the emotion-dependent context of risky behaviors. This study sought to develop and validate a comprehensive measure of the frequency and emotion-dependent context of distinct clinically relevant risky behaviors (the Risky...

Recent attention has focused on the role of interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) in the development and maintenance of a range of forms of psychopathology, including anxiety, depression, and borderline personality disorder (BPD). Despite the relevance of IER in psychopathology, few measures exist to characterize patterns of maladaptive IER. Our a...

Background: Alcohol use is highly prevalent and linked to a wide range of negative outcomes among college students. Although emotion dysregulation has been theoretically and empirically linked to alcohol use, few studies have examined emotion dysregulation stemming from positive emotions. Objective: The goal of the current study was to extend ex...

Despite the prevalence of anger management programs in correctional settings , there is mixed support for their effectiveness, and little is known about who benefits most. This preliminary study aimed to (1) evaluate the effectiveness of anger management for inmates, and (2) examine baseline psycho-pathology and midtreatment variables as response p...

Background: Although Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based psychosocial treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD), the demand for it exceeds available resources. The commonly researched 12-month version of DBT is lengthy; this can pose a barrier to its adoption in many health care settings. Further, there are no data o...

Background: Research over the past two decades supports emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic factor related to the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of a wide range of psychiatric difficulties and risky behaviors. However, prior investigations are limited by their focus on difficulties regulating negative (but not positive) emotions. Further...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are associated with increased physical health problems, including chronic pain. Although researchers have identified several risk factors that partially account for the co-occurrence of PTSD symptoms and pain, a substantial amount of variance remains unexplained in these models. The present study evalua...

Background and objectives Despite strong support for the role of emotional relief in deliberate self-harm (DSH), no research has examined the impact of emotional distress on the strength of the DSH-relief association. Thus, it remains unclear whether the association of DSH with emotional relief is stable across emotional contexts or context-depende...

Emotion dysregulation has been theorized to either directly or indirectly drive many of the symptoms associated with borderline personality disorder. In this chapter, several current controversies in this body of work are reviewed. The chapter presents the role of emotion dysregulation in theories of the development and maintenance of borderline pe...

Although borderline personality disorder (BPD) and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) are diagnostically distinct, they have considerable characteristic overlap and frequently co-occur (Becker, 2000). Problematic anger, irritability, and aggression are central components of both disorders; however, diverse forms of anger and related emotions ma...

Personality disorders are associated with a range of adverse health outcomes, contributing to the high healthcare utilization seen in patients with these disorders. A growing literature supports a robust association of personality disorders and health problems. The primary aim of this article is to summarize the most recent research documenting the...

This paper reviews current literature on the links between personality pathology and intentional self-harm, including nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal behaviors. Specifically, this review highlights recent advances stemming from longitudinal, epidemiological, and health registry studies, as well as emerging research on pathological perso...

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with higher rates of pain conditions and greater pain impairment. Past research implicates emotional suppression in acute pain tolerance; thus, emotional suppression may contribute to pain interference among those with high BPD features. Participants were 89 university students who completed measu...

Despite preliminary evidence that individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) demonstrate deficits in learning from corrective feedback, no studies have examined the influence of emotional state on these learning deficits in BPD. This laboratory study examined the influence of negative emotions on learning among participants with BPD (n...

The American criminal justice system is faced with the challenge of effectively managing the mental health difficulties experienced by many inmates (Day, 2009). In particular, offenders report more intense, frequent, and prolonged anger than non-incarcerated samples (Fernandez, Arevalo, Vargas, & Torralba, 2014). Given their implications for both i...

Difficulties with emotion regulation are central to borderline personality disorder (BPD). Recent research suggests that avoidance of emotions in general, and emotion suppression specifically, may be commonly used among those who meet criteria for the disorder. Contemporary behavioral interventions for BPD incorporate cognitive and behavioral skill...

Current paradigms of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) highlight the importance of emotion regulation (ER) as a primary motive for self-injury (Klonsky, 2007; Nock; 2009). Emerging process models (e.g., Bonanno & Burton, 2013; Aldao, 2015), however, indicate that the customary practice of mapping individual ER strategies onto symptoms is overly simpl...

Emotion dysregulation is an established developmental precursor and central component of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Recent literature on emotion regulation (ER), however, indicates that the customary practice of mapping individual ER strategies onto symptoms is overly simplistic, and that more nuanced approaches exploring patterns and r...

Objective: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with heightened psychopathology symptoms and risky behaviors. However, extant investigations are limited by their focus on IPV victimization, despite evidence to suggest that victimization and aggression frequently co-occur. Further, research on these correlates often has not accounted for t...

This study examined the effects of avoidance- versus acceptance-oriented emotion regulation instructions among individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD; n = 48), major depressive disorder (MDD; n = 54), and non-psychiatric controls (NPC; n = 50) using ecological momentary assessment. Participants were randomly assigned to either accept...

Procesos emocionales en el trastorno límite de personalidad: una actualización para la práctica clínica A pesar de que se solía ver como un trastorno con mal pronóstico, el aumento de la investigación sobre el Trastorno de Personalidad Límite (TPL) en las últimas décadas muestra que es tratable y puede tener un buen pronóstico. Las teorías prominen...