Objective: The current study evaluated the utility of the self-harm inventory (SHI) as a proxy for and screening measure of borderline personality disorder (BPD) using several diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM)-based BPD measures as criteria.
Methods: We used a sample of 145 psychiatric inpatients, who completed the SHI and a series of well-validated, DSM-based self-report measures of BPD.
Results: Using a series of latent trait and latent class analyses, we found that the SHI was substantially associated with a latent construct representing BPD, as well as differentiated latent classes of 'high' vs. 'low' BPD, with good accuracy.
Conclusions: The SHI can serve as proxy for and a good screening measure for BPD, but future research needs to replicate these findings using structured interview-based measurement of BPD.
Keywords: Assessment; borderline personality disorder; self-harm inventory.