The present longitudinal investigation examined borderline personality features as a predictor of aggression 1 year later. Moderation by physiological reactivity and gender was also explored. One hundred ninety-six children (M = 10.11 years, SD = 0.64) participated in a laboratory stress protocol in which their systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and skin conductance reactivity to recounting a relational stressor (e.g., threats to relationships or exclusion) were assessed. Teachers provided reports on subtypes of aggressive behavior (i.e., reactive relational, proactive relational, reactive physical, and proactive physical), and children completed a self-report measure of borderline personality features. Path analyses indicated that borderline personality features predicted increases in reactive relational aggression and proactive relational aggression among girls who evinced heightened physiological reactivity to interpersonal stress. In contrast, borderline personality features predicted decreases in proactive physical aggression in girls. Findings suggest that borderline personality features promote engagement in relationally aggressive behaviors among girls, particularly in the context of emotional dysregulation.

This short-term longitudinal study examined the associations between relational and physical victimization and depressive symptoms, and the moderating role of school-aged children's relational-interdependent self-construals in these associations. The participants were 387 children (51.8% boys) who were in the fifth grade (M = 10.48 years, SD = 0.55) in Taiwan and followed at two time points (a 6-month interval) during a calendar year. A multiple-informant approach was used where forms of peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and relational-interdependent self-construals were assessed via peer nominations, teacher reports, and child reports, respectively. All measures had favorable psychometric properties. The results of a multigroup cross-lagged model demonstrated that relational victimization (not physical victimization) was positively predictive of subsequent depressive symptoms, and the effect was evidenced for highly interdependent children only. The opposite link was also significant, such that depressive symptoms predicted subsequent relational victimization (not physical victimization) for children who exhibited low and high levels of relational-interdependent self-construals. In contrast, physical victimization predated a lower level of depressive symptoms for highly interdependent children. These effects were unaffected by the gender of the child. The findings, especially the interactive effects of relational victimization (as a contextual factor) and relational-interdependent self-construals (as an individual vulnerability) on depressive symptoms, are discussed from a developmental psychopathology perspective.

Although there is considerable evidence that relational victimization is associated with depressive symptoms in youth, our understanding about the mechanisms by which victimization and depressive symptoms are linked is limited. The current study explored ruminating about victimization experiences as a potential mechanism that might contribute to an understanding of the association between relational victimization and depressive symptoms. We also tested the specificity of the proposed models by controlling for and testing parallel models of a highly related behavior: relational aggression. A sample of 499 adolescents from sixth through eighth grades participated. Teacher reports were used to assess relational victimization and relational aggression. Self-reports were used to assess depressive symptoms and rumination. The results showed that rumination partially mediated the association between relational victimization and depressive symptoms. No moderation effect was found. In contrast, rumination moderated the association between relational aggression and depressive symptoms. Specifically, relational aggression was associated with depressive symptoms for those adolescents who were also ruminators. Thus, ruminating about victimization experiences appears to be an important mechanism that functions differently for relational aggression and relational victimization in conferring risk for depressive symptoms. The findings offer important practical implications for those working with adolescents and also lay the groundwork for future research.

Child maltreatment has been established as a risk factor for borderline personality disorder (BPD), yet few studies consider how maltreatment influences the development of BPD features through childhood and adolescence. Subtype, developmental timing, and chronicity of child maltreatment were examined as factors in the development of borderline personality features in childhood. Children (M age = 11.30, SD = 0.94), including 314 maltreated and 285 nonmaltreated children from comparable low socioeconomic backgrounds, provided self-reports of developmentally salient borderline personality traits. Maltreated children had higher overall borderline feature scores, had higher scores on each individual subscale, and were more likely to be identified as at high risk for development of BPD through raised scores on all four subscales. Chronicity of maltreatment predicted higher overall borderline feature scores, and patterns of onset and recency of maltreatment significantly predicted whether a participant would meet criteria for the high-risk group. Implications of findings and recommendations for intervention are discussed.

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the association between physiological reactivity to peer stressors and physical and relational aggression. Potential moderation by actual experiences of peer maltreatment (i.e., physical and relational victimization) and gender were also explored. One hundred ninety-six children (M = 10.11 years, SD = 0.64) participated in a laboratory stress protocol during which their systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and skin conductance reactivity to recounting a relational stressor (e.g., threats to relationships) and an instrumental stressor (e.g., threats to physical well-being, dominance, or property) were assessed. Teachers provided reports of aggression and victimization. In both boys and girls, physical aggression was associated with blunted physiological reactivity to relational stress and heightened physiological reactivity to instrumental stress, particularly among youth higher in victimization. In girls, relational aggression was most robustly associated with blunted physiological reactivity to relational stressors, particularly among girls exhibiting higher levels of relational victimization. In boys, relational aggression was associated with heightened physiological reactivity to both types of stressors at higher levels of peer victimization and blunted physiological reactivity to both types of stressors at lower levels of victimization. Results underscore the shared and distinct emotional processes underlying physical and relational aggression in boys and girls.

In this investigation, gene–environment–gender interaction effects in predicting child borderline personality disorder symptomatology among maltreated and nonmaltreated low-income children (N = 1,051) were examined. In the context of a summer research camp, adult-, peer-, and self-report assessments of borderline precursor indicators were obtained, as well as child self-report on the Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children. Genetic variants of the oxytocin receptor genotype and the FK506 binding protein 5 gene CATT haplotype were investigated. Children who self-reported high levels of borderline personality symptomatology were differentiated by adults, peers, and additional self-report on indicators of emotional instability, conflictual relationships with peers and adults, preoccupied attachment, and indicators of self-harm and suicidal ideation. Maltreated children also were more likely to evince many of these difficulties relative to nonmaltreated children. A series of analyses of covariance, controlling for age and ancestrally informative markers, indicated significant Maltreatment × Gene × Gender three-way interactions. Consideration of the maltreatment parameters of subtype, onset, and recency expanded understanding of variation among maltreated children. The three-way interaction effects demonstrated differential patterns among girls and boys. Among girls, the gene–environment interaction was more consistent with a diathesis-stress model, whereas among boys a differential-sensitivity interaction effect was indicated. Moreover, the genetic variants associated with greater risk for higher borderline symptomatology, dependent on maltreatment experiences, were opposite in girls compared to boys. The findings have important implications for understanding variability in early predictors of borderline personality pathology.

Child maltreatment, peer victimization, and a polymorphism of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) were examined as predictors of depressive symptomatology. Children (M age = 11.26, SD = 1.65), including 156 maltreated and 145 nonmaltreated children from comparable low socioeconomic backgrounds, provided DNA samples and self-reports of relational peer victimization, overt peer victimization, and depressive symptoms. Path analysis showed that relational and overt victimization mediated the association between child maltreatment and depressive symptoms. Bootstrapping procedures were used to test moderated mediation and demonstrated that genotype moderated the indirect effects of relational and overt victimization on child depressive symptoms, such that victimized children with the long/long variation were at an increased risk for depressive symptoms compared to victimized children carrying a short allele. Results highlight the utility of examining process models that incorporate biological and psychological factors contributing to the development of depressive symptomatology and provide direction toward understanding and promoting resilience among high-risk youth from a multiple levels of analysis approach.

Past research on peer victimization has focused on maltreatment through overtly aggressive behaviors. Although a relational form of aggression has been identified in recent research, studies of the victims of relational aggression have not yet been conducted. The present research was designed as a first attempt to address this issue. Four goals were pursued (n = 474; third- through sixth-grade children): (a) development of a self-report measure of victimization through relational and overt aggression; (b) assessment of the relation between overt victimization and relational victimization; (c) assessment of gender, grade, and sociometric status group differences in victimization; and (d) evaluation of the relation between victimization and social-psychological adjustment. Results showed that the newly developed victimization measure had favorable psychometric properties and that most of the identified victims were the targets of cither relational or overt aggression, but not both. Further, rejected children were more relationally and overtly victimized than their better accepted peers, and boys were more overtly victimized than girls. Finally, relational victimization, overt victimization, and the lack of prosocial treatment by peers were all significantly related to social-psychological adjustment difficulties (e.g., depression, loneliness).

In recent research a relationally oriented form of aggression has been identified that, in contrast to overt aggression that harms others through physical means (e.g., hitting), harms others through damage to their peer relationships (e.g., angrily retaliating against a peer by excluding her from one's play group). The goal this research was to assess the role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type (relational vs. instrumental) in children's relationally aggressive behavior. A total of 252 third- through sixth-grade children participated as subjects. A hypothetical provocation instrument was used to assess children's intent attributions and feelings of distress for ambiguous relational and instrumental provocation situations. Results showed that, as hypothesized, relationally aggressive children exhibited a hostile attributional bias and reported significantly higher levels of distress than did their nonaggressive peers for relational provocation situations. In addition, girls reported significantly higher levels of distress than did boys for relational provocation situations. Further, a comorbid group of relationally plus overtly aggressive children also exhibited a hostile attributional bias; however, their bias was evident for instrumental provocation situations only.

Trajectories of relational aggression were examined in a large, diverse sample of fourth-grade students. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine relational aggression over 1 calendar year. The results indicated that relational aggression increased in a linear fashion for girls over the course of the study. In addition, increases in friend intimate exchange were associated with time-dependent increases in relational aggression among girls only. Relational aggression and internalizing “tracked” together across the course of the study. Overall, the findings suggest relational aggression becomes increasingly common among elementary school girls, and girls' close, dyadic relationships may fuel relationally aggressive behavior in some contexts. Finally, the results indicate that relational aggression trajectories are dynamically associated with maladjustment.This study was funded by grants from NIMH (MH63684) and NSF (BCS-0126521) to N. C. Crick. Preparation of this manuscript was supported by a NIMH Traineeship (MH-15755) to D. Murray-Close and J. M. Ostrov. Portions of this manuscript were presented at the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Society for Research on Adolescence, Baltimore, MD. We thank Kathleen E. Woods for her assistance and comments on an earlier draft, Dr. Jeff Long for his statistical consultation and assistance with this study, and Peter Ralston and the entire School Buddies Project team for assistance with the collection of this data. Finally, we thank the principals, teachers, parents, and children for their participation.

Borderline personality disorder is a particularly devastating, yet understudied form of psychopathology. One of the most significant gaps in existing knowledge is the lack of systematic, prospective empirical attention to the developmental precursors of borderline personality. The present investigation was an exploratory attempt to address this limitation through (a) development of a psychometrically sound self-report instrument that assesses borderline personality features in childhood, the Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children (BPFS-C); (b) examination of the stability of BPF in childhood; (c) evaluation of gender differences in BPF in childhood; and (d) evaluation of the specificity of the BPFS-C for assessing borderline personality features. These goals were achieved through the prospective study of a normative sample of 400 (54% female) fourth though sixth graders who were assessed during the Fall of Year 1, Spring of Year 1, and Fall of Year 2. The use of linear mixed modeling techniques provided evidence for the construct validity of the BPFS-C. Further, borderline personality features as assessed with the BPFS-C were found to be moderately stable over the course of the study, with girls reporting higher levels of BPF than boys. Results also demonstrated that children's scores on the BPFS-C were uniquely related to indicators of borderline personality pathology above and beyond their scores on the Children's Depression Inventory. The implications of these results for the study of the development and etiology of borderline pathology are discussed.This research was supported by a grant to the first author from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH063684). We acknowledge Leslie Morey and Carol Rockhill for their extensive assistance with the development of the BPFS-C. We also thank the staff of the School Buddies Project and the teachers and children who participated in this study for their significant contributions.

In recent years, the role of gender in the development of psychopathology has increasingly attracted the attention of researchers, theoreticians, and other professionals interested in the well-being of children and adolescents. This interest has taken diverse forms, ranging from the examination of sex differences in the prevalence of adjustment difficulties to the exploration of unique etiologies and trajectories in the development of psychopathology for boys versus girls. In this paper we (a) critically examine the current status of available theories, research, and methods related to the study of gender and psychopathology and provide recommendations for future work; (b) identify promising new trends that appear to have utility for enhancing our understanding of the role of gender in the development of adjustment difficulties; and (c) generate conclusions regarding gender and psychopathology by integrating information from past and present work with new ideas about fruitful directions for future inquiry.