A Comparison between Female Psychiatric Outpatients with BPD and Female University Students in Terms of Trauma, Internalized Shame and Psychiatric Symptomatology.

Abstract

The focus of this study is to explore the relationship between trauma, internalized shame and psychiatric symptomatology in women diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). The literature is divided on whether the type of trauma experienced can account for differences in the BPD women’s ability to function effectively. Specifically, there is disagreement on whether sexual abuse has an overall more devastating effect on the woman than other types of trauma such as death of a family member or a criminal assault. In order to address this debate, this study compared 36 women with BPD with 49 University women and compared their responses using descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA and correlations. The findings from this research suggest that the type of trauma did not predict which women would report the highest levels of internalized shame and/or psychiatric symptomatology.