The relationship between social support, coping strategies and psychological distress and positive mental well-being in carers of people with borderline personality disorder

Table 1 Characteristics of the Informal Carer and the Person with BPD (n = 863)

Carer
Age (n = 856)	Mean (SD)	53.5 (10.7)
Gender (n = 862)	Male Female Non-binary Prefer not to say	118 (13.7%) 739 (85.7%) 3 (0.3%) 2 (0.2%)
Education level (n = 862)	Less than graduate degree Graduate degree Postgraduate degree	239 (27.7%) 314 (36.4%) 309 (35.9%)
Employment	Working Not working	586 (67.9%) 277 (32.1%)
Relationship to person with BPD	Parent Child Sibling Spouse/ Partner Significant other	649 (75.2%) 32 (3.7%) 19 (2.2%) 137 (15.9%) 26 (3.0%)
Living with the person with BPD	Yes	521 (60.4%)
Mean years caregiving ¹	Mean (SD)	12.7 (9.8)
Mean hours contact per week in last month	Mean (SD)	49.6 (54.5)
Received intervention²	Yes	639 (74%)
Chronic illness	Yes	244 (28.3%)
Person with BPD
Age (n = 862)	Mean (SD)	29.8 (13.5)
Gender (n = 861)	Male Female Non-binary Prefer not to say	191 (22.1%) 640 (74.2%) 25 (2.9%) 5 (0.6%)
Employment (n = 862)	Working Not working	265 (30.7%) 597 (69.2%)
Estimated no. days self-harm of the PwBPD in last year (n = 615)³	Mean (SD)	22.5 (59.8)
Estimated no. of days attempted suicide in last year (n = 772)³	Mean (SD)	1.0 (4.4)

Note: n = number of people who responded. 1 Two extreme outliers (100, 80) replaced with the highest value that is not an outlier (49 years). 2. The respondent was asked if they had received any intervention, education, or supports to guide them in their role as a carer for a person with BPD. 3. These values were reported by the IC rather than the PwBPD. The survey asked IC participants if they knew or were estimating the number of days of reported self-harm and attempted suicide days of the PwBPD. 19.5% of ICs that responded to the question on days of self-harm reported that they knew the number of days of self-harm by the PwBPD in the last year; 80.5% of ICs reported that their response was an estimate. 50.5% of ICs that responded to the question on days of attempted suicide reported that they knew the number of days of attempted suicide by the PwBPD in the last year; 49.5% said their response was an estimate

ISSN: 2051-6673