Content of the questionnaire
| Target audience | Adults |
|---|---|
| Application | The Borderline Symptom List (BSL) has been developed to diagnose and to identify the severity of Borderline Personality Disorders. The BSL is available in two versions, a longer 95-item version and a shorter 23-item version. |
| Composition | Both versions of the BSL measure different facets of Borderline Personality Disorders on 5-point Likert scales. While this results in different subscales for the longer 95-item version, the shorter 23-item version only has a total score as outcome. The longer version is divided into the scales self-perception, affect regulation, self-destruction, dysphoria, loneliness, intrusions and hostility. Both versions additionally also measure the total well-being on a scale from 0% to 100% as well as the frequency of several kinds of dysfunctional behaviors. |
Psychometric properties
| Reliability & Validity | Internal consistency as well as test-retest reliability of the BSL-95 have been established with excellent values (Cronbach’s Alpha = .97, 1-week retest correlation = .84). Convergent and divergent validity have been established by comparison with relevant instruments. The results are overall good to very good. Generally, the BSL-23 showed similar results as the BSL-95. |
|---|---|
| Norms | There are percent ranks available for the BSL-23 and the BSL-95 scales. |
Literature and copyright
Bohus, M., Limberger, M. F., Frank, U., Chapman, A. L., Kühler, T., & Stieglitz, R. D. (2007). Psychometric properties of the borderline symptom list (BSL). Psychopathology, 40(2), 126-132.
Bohus, M., Kleindienst, N., Limberger, M. F., Stieglitz, R. D., Domsalla, M., Chapman, A. L., … & Wolf, M. (2009). The short version of the Borderline Symptom List (BSL-23): development and initial data on psychometric properties. Psychopathology, 42(1), 32-39.
© Bohus et al., Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany.
