Abstract

This study investigated the roles of distress tolerance and anger rumination as sequential mediators of the relationship between borderline personality features and aggression. The participants were 198 college students (49 males and, 149 females) who completed online self-report questionnaires that measured borderline personality features, distress tolerance, anger rumination, and aggression. The results indicated that distress tolerance did not significantly mediate the association between borderline personality features and aggression, whereas anger rumination did. Distress tolerance and anger rumination sequentially mediated the association between borderline personality features and aggression. Furthermore, the indirect effect of borderline personality features on aggression via distress tolerance and anger rumination was significant. This study expanded the literature by elucidating the conjoint roles of emotional and cognitive factors in the mechanism for predicting aggression in relation to borderline personality features and underscores those factors as potential targets for intervention.