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Cited by 267Child Abuse and TraumaPersonality Disorders and PsychopathologyChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Childhood verbal abuse and risk for personality disorders during adolescence and early adulthood

Johnson, Jeffrey G., Cohen, Patricia, Smailes, Elizabeth M., Skodol, Andrew E., Brown, Jocelyn, Oldham, John M.·2001·Comprehensive Psychiatry
DOI 10.1053/comp.2001.19755
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Abstract

Data from a community-based longitudinal study were used to investigate whether childhood verbal abuse increases risk for personality disorders (PDs) during adolescence and early adulthood. Psychiatric and psychosocial interviews were administered to a representative community sample of 793 mothers and their offspring from two New York State counties in 1975, 1983, 1985 to 1986, and 1991 to 1993, when the mean ages of the offspring were 5, 14, 16, and 22 years, respectively. Data regarding childhood abuse and neglect were obtained from the psychosocial interviews and from official New York State records. Offspring who experienced maternal verbal abuse during childhood were more than three times as likely as those who did not experience verbal abuse to have borderline, narcissistic, obsessive-compulsive, and paranoid PDs during adolescence or early adulthood. These associations remained significant after offspring temperament, childhood physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, physical punishment during childhood, parental education, parental psychopathology, and co-occurring psychiatric disorders were controlled statistically. In addition, youths who experienced childhood verbal abuse had elevated borderline, narcissistic, paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal PD symptom levels during adolescence and early adulthood after the covariates were accounted for. These findings suggest that childhood verbal abuse may contribute to the development of some types of PDs, independent of offspring temperament, childhood physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, physical punishment during childhood, parental education, parental psychopathology, and co-occurring psychiatric disorders.

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  • Neglect, low parental involvement, and emotional maltreatment rather than physical and sexual abuse are the critical predictors of BPD.

    “In line with our emphasis on the importance of a mirroring relationship for the establishment of mentalization, a number of studies support the view that neglect, low parental involvement, and emotional maltreatment rather than the presence of physical and sexual abuse are the critical predictors of BPD (e.g. Johnson et al., 2001; Ludolph et al., 1990).”

    From A developmental, mentalization-based approach to the understanding and treatment of borderline personality disorder (2009) · cites this paper as Johnson et al., 2001

  • Third-generation studies have documented differential etiologies for vulnerable versus grandiose narcissism and a multifactorial etiology of NPD.

    “Those studies have documented differential etiologies for vulnerable versus grandiose narcissism and a multifactorial etiology of NPD.”

    From Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Progress in Understanding and Treatment (2022) · cites this paper as [58]

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Authors
Johnson, J. G., Cohen, P., Smailes, E. M., Skodol, A. E., Brown, J., & Oldham, J. M.
Affiliations
New York State Psychiatric Institute (US)
ORCID
Venue
Comprehensive Psychiatry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2001-01
Volume
42
Issue
1
Pages
16-23
ISSN
0010-440X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1053/comp.2001.19755
OpenAlex
W1993725892
Cited by
267
References
34
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 13
FWCI
7.55
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Comprehensive Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (MH-36971, R01MH036971)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords
personality disorders, borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, adolescence, early adulthood, childhood abuse and neglect, corporal punishment, parental psychopathology
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Child, Child Abuse, Child, Preschool, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, New York, Personality Assessment, Personality Development, Personality Disorders, Risk

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