Sexual Orientation and Borderline Personality Disorder Features in a Community Sample of Adolescents.

Empirical literature demonstrates that sexual minorities are at an increased risk of developing psychopathology, including borderline personality disorder (BPD). The specific link between sexual orientation and BPD has received significantly less attention in youth, and it remains unclear what drives this relation. Given that there are higher rates of psychopathology in both sexual minorities and individuals with BPD, the present study aimed to determine if sexual orientation uniquely contributes to borderline personality pathology, controlling for other psychopathology.

Emotion dysregulation, psychological inflexibility, and shame as explanatory factors between neuroticism and depression.

Background: The association between neuroticism and depression is well documented. However, neuroticism is a general risk factor associated with many forms of psychopathology, such as anxiety, eating, and personality disorders. Past research has suggested that other factors may mediate the relationship between neuroticism and symptoms of particular disorders.

Factors associated with depression among adolescents living with HIV in Malawi.

Background: Prior research suggests that a high prevalence of depression, with a detrimental impact on treatment outcomes exists among HIV-infected youth. Data on potential risk factors of depression among HIV-infected youth in sub-Saharan Africa are scarce. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify contributory/protective factors associated with depression in Malawian adolescents 12-18 years old living with HIV.

Vulnerabilities of the mentalization-based models of vulnerability: A rejoinder to commentaries on the special issue on mentalization in borderline personality disorder.

Fonagy and Sharp read the commentaries with interest, respect, and deep gratitude. Interest, because, consistent with their mentalization-based approach, they discover most about themselves through the eyes of others. Respect, because all the commentators are major contributors to the field whose contributions deserve special issues in their own right.

Mentalization in borderline personality disorder: From bench to bedside.

The current special issue focuses on the potential of mentalizing as a translational construct for the understanding and treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Mentalizing, which provides the central construct around which mentalization-based therapy (MBT) and theory is organized, refers to the capacity to meaningfully reflect on the mind of others as well as the self. In this introductory article to the special issue, we begin by discussing the need for and nature of translational research.

Social cognition, psychopathological symptoms, and family functioning in a sample of inpatient adolescents using variable-centered and person-centered approaches.

The process of diagnosis and treatment planning for adolescents requires clinicians to integrate information about various domains of functioning especially: clinical signs and symptoms, social cognition and family functioning. In the current study we applied an integrative analytic approach to mirror case conceptualization by clinicians. Our analyses were performed on the data gathered from the 328 inpatient adolescents.

Neuroeconomics for the study of social cognition in adolescent depression.

Traditional social-cognitive approaches for investigating interpersonal problems in adolescent depression are limited. An important functional domain studied in adolescent depression is reward, but experimental paradigms have largely been non-social. In this paper, we propose the methods and concepts of neuroeconomics may address this gap.

First empirical evaluation of the link between attachment, social cognition and borderline features in adolescents.

Objective: Several developmental models of borderline personality disorder (BPD) emphasize the role of disrupted interpersonal relationships or insecure attachment. As yet, attachment quality and the mechanisms by which insecure attachment relates to borderline features in adolescents have not been investigated. In this study, we used a multiple mediational approach to examine the cross-sectional interplay between attachment, social cognition (in particular hypermentalizing), emotion dysregulation, and borderline features in adolescence, controlling for internalizing and externalizing symptoms.

Practitioner Review: Borderline personality disorder in adolescence--recent conceptualization, intervention, and implications for clinical practice.

Background: The past decade has seen an unprecedented increase in research activity on personality disorders (PDs) in adolescents. The increase in research activity, in addition to major nosological systems legitimizing the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in adolescents, highlights the need to communicate new research on adolescent personality problems to practitioners.

Scope: In this review, we provide up-to-date information on the phenomenology, prevalence, associated clinical problems, etiology, and intervention for BPD in adolescents.

Secure Attachment Moderates the Relation of Sexual Trauma With Trauma Symptoms Among Adolescents From an Inpatient Psychiatric Facility.

Experiencing sexual trauma has been linked to internalizing and externalizing psychopathologies. Insecure attachment has been shown to moderate the relation between sexual trauma and trauma symptoms among adults. However, few studies have explored relations among sexual trauma, attachment insecurity, and trauma symptoms in adolescence, and none have used developmentally appropriate measures.

Parent emotional distress and feeding styles in low-income families. The role of parent depression and parenting stress.

Purpose: Depression and other stressors have been associated with general parenting and child outcomes in low-income families. Given that parents shape child eating behaviors through their feeding interactions with their child, it is important to investigate factors that may influence parental feeding of young children. The aim of this study was to examine how depressive symptoms and parenting stress might influence the nature of parent feeding styles in low-income families.

Exploring the dynamic nature of "us": An integrative approach to relationship cognition.

Most psychiatric disorders are associated with problems in interpersonal relationships. This is not surprising because people's relationships with others are an influential and integral component of their lives. The cognitive representations of these relationships can be important in understanding these relationships, and both the attachment and relational schema approaches have helped to better understand the nature of these cognitions.

Current maternal depression moderates the relation between critical expressed emotion in mothers and depressive symptoms in their adolescent daughters.

Prior studies have examined critical expressed emotion (EE-Crit) in mothers in the intergenerational transmission of depression. However, the potential moderating effect of maternal depression diagnostic status in relation to EE-Crit and youth depressive symptoms has yet to be determined. A total of N=121 biological mother/daughter dyads that differed in maternal depression diagnostic status were recruited for the present study: (1) currently depressed mothers (current depression, n=29); (2) formerly depressed mothers (past depression, n=39); and (3) mothers free from any psychiatric history (healthy controls, n=53).

The Independent Contributions of Emotion Dysregulation and Hypermentalization to the "Double Dissociation" of Affective and Cognitive Empathy in Female Adolescent Inpatients With BPD.

Harari, Shamay-Tsoory, Ravid, and Levkovitz (2010) demonstrated a "double dissociation" in empathy in borderline personality disorder (BPD), such that BPD patients had higher affective than cognitive empathy, whereas controls exhibited the opposite pattern. Two processes that may relate to this dissociation are emotion dysregulation (ER) and hypermentalization. However, these interrelated processes have not been studied concomitantly, and the dissociation of empathy types has not been examined in adolescents with BPD.

Emotion dysregulation mediates the relationship between traumatic exposure and aggression in healthy young women.

Research has linked trauma-sequelae, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, to aggression. However, not all who experience a trauma become violent, suggesting non-trauma factors, such as emotion dysregulation, influence aggression expression and if confirmed, may influence treatment approaches. Aggression can be considered a multifaceted construct with Impulsive Aggression (IA) as emotional, reactive, and uncontrolled and Premeditated Aggression (PA) as deliberate, planned, and instrumental.

An evaluation of the construct of earned security in adolescents: evidence from an inpatient sample.

In adult attachment research, a group of individuals who convey secure attachments despite recalling difficult early caregiver relationships has been identified. The term earned security refers to individuals in this group, whereas continuous security refers to individuals who convey secure attachments and describe caring early relationships. Evidence on the validity of earned security in adults is mixed--with one longitudinal study showing that earned secure adults, despite contrary recollections, are actually more likely to have experienced positive caregiving than continuous secure adults.

Examination of smoking inflexibility as a mechanism linking anxiety sensitivity and severity of smoking behavior.

Background And Objectives: Anxiety sensitivity is associated with smoking processes and poorer clinical outcomes. Yet, the specific mechanisms underlying this association are unclear. Smoking-specific avoidance and inflexibility (AIS) is a construct implicated in multiple manifestations of mood regulation that may underlie smoking severity.

Recent advances in the developmental aspects of borderline personality disorder.

The aim of the current paper was to review the most recent advances in the developmental aspects of borderline personality disorder (BPD) over the last 3 years to highlight the most significant trends in the field. In so doing, we identify and discuss two exciting new trends: (a) an emphasis on the biological basis of adolescent BPD and (b) empirical evidence in support of long-held theories of the development of BPD. Together, these trends suggest that for the first time, empirical findings are beginning to emerge in support of complex and reciprocal biology × environment interactions over time in the development of BPD.

Assessing relations between PTSD's dysphoria and reexperiencing factors and dimensions of rumination.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relations between posttraumatic stress disorder's (PTSD) dysphoria and reexperiencing factors and underlying dimensions of rumination. 304 trauma-exposed primary care patients were administered the Stressful Life Events Screening Questionnaire, PTSD Symptom Scale based on their worst traumatic event, and Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire (RTSQ). Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were conducted to determine the dysphoria and reexperiencing factors' relationships with the four factors of rumination.

The structure of personality pathology: Both general ('g') and specific ('s') factors?

Recent editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) conceptualize personality disorders (PDs) as categorical constructs, but high PD co-occurrence suggests underlying latent dimensions. Moreover, several borderline PD criteria resemble Criterion A of the new DSM-5 Section III general criteria for personality pathology (i.e.

Maternal depression, stress and feeding styles: towards a framework for theory and research in child obesity.

Against the background of rising rates of obesity in children and adults in the USA, and modest effect sizes for obesity interventions, the aim of the present narrative review paper is to extend the UNICEF care model to focus on childhood obesity and its associated risks with an emphasis on the emotional climate of the parent-child relationship within the family. Specifically, we extended the UNICEF model by applying the systems approach to childhood obesity and by combining previously unintegrated sets of literature across multiple disciplines including developmental psychology, clinical psychology and nutrition. Specifically, we modified the extended care model by explicitly integrating new linkages (i.

An Exploratory Study of Teen Dating Violence in Sexual Minority Youth.

Objective: Teen dating violence (TDV) represents a serious social problem in adolescence and is associated with a host of physical and emotional consequences. Despite advances in identification of risk factors, prevention efforts, and treatment, the TDV literature has overwhelmingly used samples that do not assess sexual orientation or assume heterosexuality. Although a few studies have explicitly examined dating violence among sexual minorities in adolescents, methodological issues limit the generalizability of these findings, and no study to date has examined patterns of dating violence over time in sexual minority youth.

Experiential avoidance mediates the link between maternal attachment style and theory of mind.

Theoretical and empirical models suggest a relation between attachment style and theory of mind (ToM) in childhood and adulthood; however, this link has not been evaluated to the same extent in adolescence. Additionally, these models typically fail to consider mechanisms by which attachment style affects ToM abilities. The present study sought to test a mediational model in which experiential avoidance mediates the relation between maternal attachment style and ToM.