First psychometric evaluation of the Mexican Spanish version of the 11-item BPFSC-11 and convergence with maladaptive self and interpersonal functioning.

Background: The Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children (BPFSC-11) is a well-used, short, and easy-to-administer measure of borderline traits in young people. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Mexican Spanish version of the BPFSC-11 in a large community-based sample of Mexican adolescents. In addition, we evaluated the convergence between the borderline construct as measured by the BPFSC-11 and general personality functioning consistent with more contemporary personality disorder formulations to assess the nomological net of the BPFSC-11 total score.

Methods: A sample of 1212 adolescents (52.6% female, mean age = 15.11, SD = 1.74) were recruited from the community through schools in Mexico City and Michoacán area.

Results: Reliability of the BPFSC-11 was good (α = 0.805; ω = 0.806). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model testing the unidimensional factor structure of the 11 items of the BPFSC-11 provided good fit (X[44] = 137.96, p < 0.001; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.04 [90% CI: 0.03, 0.05]; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.96; standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.03). Both configural and metric invariance for gender and age were demonstrated; however, only partial scalar invariance could be demonstrated with some items showing "bias" for gender and age. The Mexican Spanish BPFSC-11 also showed strong convergence with measures assessing contemporary conceptualization of general personality functioning.

Conclusions: The Mexican Spanish BPFSC-11 appears to show similarly strong psychometric properties of other versions of the BPFSC-11; and the borderline construct as assessed with the BPFSC-11 shows good conversion with general personality functioning in adolescents.