Page 20 - Personality disorders and insecure attachment among adolescents

significantly from the rest in age, gender or severity of symptoms or personality disorders. The remaining sample consisted of 102 respondents, with 83 females (81.4%) and 19 males (18.6%). While all were assessed by the SCID-II interview initially, only 62 (60.8%) post-treatment SCID-II interviews were administered. One adolescent did not complete the SCID-II interview at pre-treatment but did at post-treatment. The average duration of treatment of adolescents who only participated in a pre-treatment SCID-II interview was shorter (202.1 days; SD = 115.2, 61-526), with an average of 146.4 (SD = 124.9, 0-420) days of hospitalisation, compared to those who also participated in a post- treatment SCID-II interview (378.6 days; SD = 126.0, 120-549), with an average of 246.0 (SD = 139.4, 0-547) days of hospitalisation (p = 0.000; t = 7.406). Of the respondents who only participated in a pre-treatment SCID-II interview, 43% completed the treatment according to protocol, as compared to 92% of the adolescents who also participated in a post-treatment SCID-II interview. The number and type of personality disorders did not differ between these groups. Missing post-treatment research data was caused by respondents who failed to complete the set of web-based questionnaires during post-treatment or repeatedly failed to show up at the final SCID-II interview appointment. Measures The participating adolescents completed a set of web-based questionnaires at the beginning and end of treatment, including the Dutch Questionnaire for Personality Characteristics (Vragenlijst voor Kenmerken van de Persoonlijkheid) (VKP) (Duijsens, Eurelings-Bontekoe, & Diekstra, 1996) and the Symptom Check List 90 (SCL-90) (Arrindell & Ettema, 2003; Derogatis, Lipman, & Covi, 1973). Subjects were interviewed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM personality disorders (SCID-II) (Spitzer, Williams, Gibbon, & First, 1990). VKP The VKP is a questionnaire consisting of 197 questions with the answer categories ‘true’ or ‘false’; its purpose is to screen for personality disorders according to the DSM-IV. The VKP is known for its high sensitivity and low specificity (Duijsens et al., 1996) and is recommended (Dingemans & Sno, 2004; Verheul, Van der Brink, & Spinhoven, 2000) as a pre-assessment instrument before administering the Dutch version of the SCID-II. Presumed and certain indications of a personality disorder on the VKP indicate which SCID-II personality disorder sections should be applied. The test- retest reliability (Cohen’s Kappa) of the VKP on categorical diagnoses was moderate (k = .40) (Duijsens et al., 1996). 16