Citation

Bouchard S, Sabourin S, Lussier Y, Villeneuve E. J. Marital Fam. Ther. 2009; 35(4): 446-455.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1752-0606.2009.00151.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The main goal of the present study was to examine and compare the psychosocial functioning of 35 couples including a woman diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) to that of a nonclinical control sample of 35 couples. The BPD status of women from the clinical group and the prevalence of personality disorder in their partner were ascertained through the SCID-II. Participants completed self-report measures of couple functioning. A majority of couples in which the woman suffered from BPD (68.7%) evidenced frequent episodes of breakups and reconciliations and, over an 18-month period, nearly 30% of these couples dissolved their relationship. Nearly half of the men involved in a romantic relationship with a woman suffering from BPD met criteria for one personality disorder or more. As compared with nonclinical couples, clinical couples showed lower marital satisfaction, higher attachment insecurity, more demand/withdraw communication problems, and higher levels of violence.