A comparison of adolescent and adult defense styles

Nasserbakht, Afsaneh; Araujo, Katy; Steiner, Hans

doi:10.1007/bf02353442

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Immature defense style has associated with psychological symptoms (Chan, 1997;Evans and Seaman, 2000;Muris et al, 2003) in nonclinical adolescents, and with psychosocial adjustment both in clinical (Smith et al, 1992) and nonclinical adolescents (Erickson et al, 1996). Factor analysis studies have yielded two (Evans and Seaman, 2000), three Muris et al, 2003), or four (Nasserbakht et al, 1996;Steiner, 1990) DSQ factors in adolescents. Although these earlier findings suggest that DSQ may be useful for adolescents, none of these versions has been used widely or become established.…”

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confidence: 98%

Psychometric Properties of the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) in Adolescents

Ruuttu¹,

Pelkonen²,

Holi³

et al. 2006

Journal of Nervous &Amp; Mental Disease

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This study examined the psychometric properties of the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) in adolescents. Internal consistency, factor structure, and discriminant and concurrent validity of the DSQ-40 were studied in 211 adolescent psychiatric outpatients aged 13 to 19 years and 199 age-matched and sex-matched controls. Principal components analysis yielded four internally consistent components: mature, neurotic, image-distorting, and immature defense styles. The outpatients reported more immature, image-distorting, and neurotic styles and less mature style than did the controls, suggesting adequate discriminant validity. As a demonstration of convergent and concurrent validity, the severity of psychiatric symptoms assessed by the General Health Questionnaire and psychosocial adjustment assessed by the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale correlated theoretically meaningfully with the different defense styles. The DSQ-40 appears to be a reliable and valid instrument for adolescents.

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mentioning

confidence: 98%

Psychometric Properties of the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) in Adolescents

Ruuttu¹,

Pelkonen²,

Holi³

et al. 2006

Journal of Nervous &Amp; Mental Disease

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“…people (Bond et al, 1983;Vaillant, 1971Vaillant, , 1976. Last, researchers agree that mature defences increase and immature defences decrease with age (Crittenden, 1995;Haan, 1977;Nasserbakht, Araujo, & Steiner, 1996;Vaillant, 1971). They also assume that negative life experiences, such as illness in the family, and external dangers, such as natural disasters, can disturb the healthy maturation of defences (Vaillaint, 1971).…”

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confidence: 99%

The role of psychological defences in moderating between trauma and post‐traumatic symptoms among Palestinian men

et al. 2002

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Gaza Community Mental Health Program, Palestine P sychological defences are conceptualized as protective processes that help individuals to maintain their integrity in the face of threat and danger. Accordingly, their role in defending trauma victims from post-traumatic symptoms was examined. The sample consisted of 128 Palestinian male political ex-prisoners who had reported various degrees of torture and ill-treatment. The rst aim was to analyze the dimensionality and distribution of different defence mechanisms. The second was to examine which defences would moderate the association between the reported torture and ill-treatment and the post-traumatic symptoms (PTS). Third, the direct associations between reported torture and ill-treatment and defences and between the defences and symptoms were explored. Defence mechanisms were assessed by a 40-item version of the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ), and Post-traumatic symptoms by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), and experiences of torture and ill-treatment by a scale developed for that purpose. The results show, rst, that the men used predominantly mature defences such as anticipation, sublimation, suppression, and rationalization, but also relatively frequently somatization and dissociation, which are characteristic responses among trauma victims. Second, the principal component analysis revealed four defence dimensions, differentiated by the level of maturity and the approach to reality: the mature reality-based, the consciousness-limiting, the immature reality-escaping, and the immature reality-distorting defences. Third, against our hypothesis, the moderating analyses indicated that the reported torture and ill-treatment were relatively more associated with vigilance, avoidance, and intrusion symptoms if men used consciousness-limiting defences. Yet as expected, the mature realitybased defences did not show a protective effect. Furthermore, a high level of reported torture and ill-treatment was associated with a low level of the mature reality-based defences, but not with a high level of immature defences. Last, similarly to earlier studies, the immature realitydistorting and immature reality-escaping defences associated directly with high, and mature reality-based defences with low, levels of PTS-symptoms. L es défenses psychologiques sont considérées en tant que des processus protecteurs qui aident les individus à maintenir son intégrité face aux menaces et au danger. Par conséquent, on a examiné le rôle de protection qu'elles jouent pour les victimes de trauma par rapport aux symptômes de tension post traumatique. La population étudiée était composée par 128 hommes Palestiniens ex-prisonniers politiques qui manifestaient différents niveaux de torture et mauvais traitement. Le premier objectif a été l'analyse des dimensions et de la distribution des différents mécanismes de défense. Le deuxième, l'examen des défenses qui agissent en tant que modératrices dans l'association entre torture et mauvais traitement rapportés par les sujets concernant les ...

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“…In particular, the research group around Steiner et al has been very active in this regard. In several studies ( 30 – 33 ), they used a 78-item modification of Bond's original DSQ-81 ( 22 ), in which 19 DM were assessed by one to nine items on a 9-point scale in adolescents 12 years of age and older. Unfortunately, the item modifications were not described in more detail.…”

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confidence: 99%

Defense Mechanisms Reloaded in the Light of Impaired Personality Functioning: An Attempt of Clarification and Simplification Resulting in the DSQ-22-A for Adolescents

Goth

2022

Front. Psychiatry

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With the upcoming ICD-11, the diagnostic guidelines for personality disorders will change fundamentally to a dimensional severity concept, including the evaluation of several domains of personality functioning. Moreover, the lifetime perspective will allow this diagnosis even in early adolescence, providing the opportunity for early detection and intervention. In psychodynamic understanding, defense mechanisms are considered to be a part of the “personality structure”, which is one axis in the related diagnostic system (OPD) and showed great similarities to the concept of personality functioning. The most common inventory to assess defense mechanisms is the Defense Style Questionnaire, especially the DSQ-40, which has unfortunately not been specifically adapted to younger ages yet. Using an age-adapted version of the DSQ-40 with simplified formulations, a thorough empirical item analyses and selection was performed, including a face-validity check of the items by experienced therapists and assessments for item correlations, factor structure, reliability, construct and clinical validity in a german clinical and school sample containing 396 adolescents. Though several improvements, similar problems as reported for the adult DSQ versions concerning face-validity and coherence of the item pairs (2-item-method) to represent the single defense mechanisms were obtained. Thus, not all item pairs could be kept and a shortened version DSQ-22-A for adolescents with good psychometric properties was build. The three resulting defense categories adaptive, neurotic and maladaptive showed acceptable scale reliabilities (0.63, 0.56, 0.68), sound factor structure and convincing convergent and clinical validity in terms of highly significant correlations with impaired personality structure according to the OPD-CA2-SQ as well as with PHQ-D depression and somatic symptoms, especially for the maladaptive defense category (0.75, 0.44, 0.34). Likewise, the maladaptive defense category differed highly significant (p = 0.000) and with a large effect size of d = 0.9 standard deviations between adolescents from the school and the clinical sample. The DSQ-22-A can be recommended for use in adolescents for research, diagnostics and therapy planning, especially with regard to personality functioning and structure. Possible fundamental changes concerning some basic operationalization's of the defense mechanisms and the 2-item-method were suggested for international discussion.

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A comparison of adolescent and adult defense styles

Cited by 12 publications

References 7 publications

Psychometric Properties of the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) in Adolescents

Psychometric Properties of the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) in Adolescents

The role of psychological defences in moderating between trauma and post‐traumatic symptoms among Palestinian men

Defense Mechanisms Reloaded in the Light of Impaired Personality Functioning: An Attempt of Clarification and Simplification Resulting in the DSQ-22-A for Adolescents

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