In a previous study of primary care outpatients, the authors found a significant relationship between a history of domestic violence and borderline personality symptomatology. In the present study, they explore this relationship in a sample of women psychiatric inpatients. They use the Severity of Violence Against Women Scale (SVAWS) to assess a history of domestic violence and two self-report measures, the Self-Harm Inventory (SHI) and the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 (PDQ-4), to assess borderline personality symptomatology. Both measures of borderline personality symptomatology were highly related to each other (r = .63, p < .001) as well as to the SVAWS (r = .31, p < .001 for the SHI; r = .37, p < .001 for the PDQ-4). Using the recommended diagnostic cutoff scores on the measures for borderline personality symptomatology, 90.2% of those with histories of domestic violence scored in the positive range on either or both measures, compared to 65.1% of nonabused women. The authors discuss the clinical implications of these findings.
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