Borderline Personality Symptoms and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Risk in Alcohol and Other Drug Abusing Adolescent Offenders
2009
Problem statement: Incarcerated youth with borderline symptomatology
represent a particularly at risk-population due to their enggement in risky behaviors.
Five hundred twenty two adolescents were assessed for borderline symptomatology
(MACI), engagement in risky behaviors and attitudes/knowledge. Approach:Adolescents
were divided into two groups: low borderline (below the 60 scale score cutoff)
and high borderline (subclinical and clinical range). Multivariate analyses were
used to test for group differences. Results: The high borderline
group had higher perceived susceptibility, greater knowledge, less favorable sexual
and condom attitudes and less favorable behavioral intentions. There were no significant
differences by group on sexual risk or substance use behaviors. A subset (n =
156) participating in a risk reduction experimental trial were followed three
months post-intervention for differences in sexual risk and substance use. The
high borderline experimental participants reported significantly more anal sex
than the low borderline adolescents at 3 month follow-up. High borderline adolescents
in the control group reported greater cocaine use than low borderline controls
at 3 months, including trends suggesting more marijuana and alcohol use. At 3
month follow-up, no differences in cocaine, alcohol or marijuana use were detected
between high and low borderline adolescents in the experimental group. Adolescents
with higher borderline tendencies appear to realistically assess that they are
at high risk of contracting HIV but may have less confidence in their ability
to adopt HIV preventive behaviors. The results indicate that borderline personality
symptoms may represent an important indicator of attitudes conducive to HIV transmission.
Conclusion:Three-month follow-up data indicate the importance of examining
borderline characteristics more microanalytically within research studies, including
their potential role as moderators of intervention effect and their interactions
with substance use, particularly cocaine. We discuss the further importance of
matching this microanalysis with measures of the neurobiological dimension in
order to further the field.
Keywords:
- Correction
- Source
- Cite
- Save
- Machine Reading By IdeaReader
39
References
7
Citations
NaN
KQI