The overall focus of the thesis is on Personality Disorders (PD) and the factors that influence the development and maintenance of these. This thesis consists of three parts. Part one presents a systematic literature review on the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and emotional neglect and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Although existing research evidences the link between childhood trauma and BPD, no systematic review has considered the specific impact of emotional abuse and emotional neglect as opposed to sexual or physical abuse. Evidence of variables that may account for or contribute to the relationship is considered. Part two is an empirical paper on the stability of PDs in adolescence over a two year period and the role that attachment plays in the maintenance of PD traits during this time. The results showed that PD traits in adolescence decline over time to an extent. Higher levels of overall quality of attachment and lower levels of alienation from peers, as measured at baseline, were predictive of improvement in the number of PD traits over time. The validity of the results is discussed in relation to problems of sample size and statistical power. The data collection for this study was conducted jointly with another trainee and in conjunction with a trial into Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT) for adolescents with emerging PD. Part three is a critical appraisal discussing reflections on issues that arose during the process of the research and commenting more generally on current debates within the field of PD research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:587823 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Crombie, T. |
| Publisher | University College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1406084/ |
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