To characterize precursors and trajectories in the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD), anonymous internet surveys were administered to parents about their BPD offspring and non-BPD siblings. Questions covered aspects of probands' lives from pregnancy through young adulthood. BPD offspring were identified through both lifetime clinical diagnoses and diagnostic criteria embedded within the survey. We report on 234 female offspring meeting strict criteria for BPD, and 87 non-BPD female siblings. Parents of daughters with BPD describe the presence of affective symptomatology starting in infancy, including significant differences from non-BPD probands in moodiness. These affective symptoms persist after infancy, and are joined by interpersonal difficulties that manifest themselves in toddlerhood and childhood. By adolescence, difficulties with impulsivity, aggression, acting out, and self-destructive behaviors dominate the profile.

This study examined the efficacy of a game-based cognitive-behavioral group therapy program for addressing problems typically found among elementary school-aged victims of child sexual abuse immediately after treatment and at three months following treatment. It was hypothesized that positive gains would be observed among the following domains: (a) internalizing symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, and trauma); (b) externalizing behaviors (e.g., oppositional behavior, disobedience, and conduct disordered behavior); and (c) sexually inappropriate behaviors. Improved knowledge of abuse and personal safety skills was also predicted. Results indicated that game-based cognitive-behavioral group therapy resulted in improvements in internalizing symptoms, externalizing behavioral problems, total behavioral problems, and personal safety skills both immediately after treatment and at three-month follow-up.

Research has begun to identify factors that may moderate the effects of interventions for symptomatology associated with child sexual abuse (CSA). However, there is disagreement about which factors may be important for different populations. The present investigation examined predictors of treatment outcomes among 166 predominantly economically disadvantaged and culturally diverse CSA survivors between the ages of six and ten, who were treated using game‐based cognitive‐behavioural therapy (GB‐CBT). Predictor variables included demographic characteristics (i.e. age, gender, ethnicity, household income) and abuse‐related risk factors (i.e. degree of invasiveness of abuse, frequency of instances of CSA and type of relationship to the perpetrator). Treatment outcomes included internalising and externalising symptoms, sexually inappropriate behaviours, knowledge of abuse and personal safety skills. Results indicate that participants' responsiveness to treatment was not impacted by demographic or abuse‐related risk factors. Thus, group treatment appears to be effective for treating a wide range of problems following CSA, irrespective of clients' varied demographic background and abuse characteristics. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Messages: GB‐CBT is an integrative treatment approach for survivors of CSA, combining features of trauma‐focused cognitive‐behavioural therapy (TF‐CBT), play therapy and group therapy. It is important to investigate whether demographic and abuse characteristics impact treatment outcomes for CSA to determine whether children respond differently to treatment based on pre‐existing characteristics. GB‐CBT participants experienced improvements in internalising and externalising symptoms, sexually inappropriate behaviours and personal safety skills, irrespective of their demographic backgrounds and varied abuse histories.

No abstract