Childhood maltreatment and adult personality disorder symptoms: influence of maltreatment type.
The present study examines the effects of different types of childhood maltreatment on personality disorder symptoms in a sample of adults with no Axis I psychopathology. Participants reporting a history of moderate to severe maltreatment on the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (n = 70) were grouped by type of abuse and compared with a non-abused group (n = 35) with regard to the number of personality disorder symptoms endorsed. Physical/sexual abuse and emotional abuse/neglect each were associated with elevated symptoms of all three personality disorder clusters. Elevated symptoms of several specific personality disorders were also seen, including paranoid, borderline, avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive, and depressive personality disorder. There were no significant differences between the maltreatment groups. These findings indicate that emotional abuse/neglect and physical/sexual abuse are risk factors for a broad array of personality outcomes in a non-clinical sample.
Tyrka
Audrey R
AR
Mood Disorders Research Program and Laboratory for Clinical Neuroscience, Butler Hospital, Providence, RI 02906, USA. Audrey_Tyrka@brown.edu
Wyche
Margaret C
MC
Kelly
Megan M
MM
Price
Lawrence H
LH
Carpenter
Linda L
LL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult