Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Therapist Response Questionnaire for Adolescents (TRQ-A; Satir et al., 2009), a clinician-report instrument able to measure the clinician’s emotional reactions (or countertransference) to the adolescent patient in psychotherapy. Methods: A national sample of psychiatrists and psychologists (N = 185) completed the TRQ-A, as well as the Psychodiagnostic Chart for Adolescents (PDC-A; Malberg et al., 2017) from the PDM-2 (Lingiardi, McWilliams, 2017), to assess levels of emerging personality organization and emerging personality styles/syndromes regarding an adolescent patient in their care. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out to identify the factor structure of the TRQ-A. Reliability of the TRQ-A’s scales was calculated using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. Bivariate correlations between these scales and variables of personality were conducted to assess the criterion validity. Results: EFA revealed six distinct countertransference scales: hostile/devaluated, positive, bored/failing, overwhelmed/scared, overinvolved, sexualized. These scales showed excellent reliability and good validity. They were significantly associated with patients’ levels of personality organization and emerging personality styles/syndromes. In particular, more severe levels of personality organization were related to the bored/failing and overwhelmed/scared countertransference. Narcissistic and antisocial/psychopathic personality styles/syndromes were associated with the hostile/devaluated and overwhelmed/scared therapist responses, and borderline style/syndrome was related to the overwhelmed/scared and overinvolved countertransference. Schizoid personality style/syndrome was associated with the bored/failing countertransference, while impulsive/histrionic style/syndrome was related to the sexualized therapist response. Positive countertransference was related to the obsessional personality style. Conclusion: The TRQ-A is a very useful instrument to evaluate countertransference reactions in clinically sensitive and psychometrically robust ways. Moreover, adolescents’ emerging personality styles/syndromes were consistently associated with specific emotional responses, which suggests that clinicians can make diagnostic and therapeutic use of their responses to patients.
Patient personality and therapist responses in the adolescent psychotherapy: The validation of the Therapist Response Questionnaire for adolescents / Tanzilli, Annalisa; Gualco, Ivan; Lingiardi, Vittorio. - ELETTRONICO. - (2018), pp. 48-49. (Intervento presentato al convegno 5th International Congress on Borderline Personality Disorder and Allied Disorders Rethinking Borderline Personality Disorder: Improving Treatment and Training tenutosi a Sitges, Barcellona, Spagna).
Patient personality and therapist responses in the adolescent psychotherapy: The validation of the Therapist Response Questionnaire for adolescents
Annalisa, Tanzilli
;Vittorio, Lingiardi
2018
Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Therapist Response Questionnaire for Adolescents (TRQ-A; Satir et al., 2009), a clinician-report instrument able to measure the clinician’s emotional reactions (or countertransference) to the adolescent patient in psychotherapy. Methods: A national sample of psychiatrists and psychologists (N = 185) completed the TRQ-A, as well as the Psychodiagnostic Chart for Adolescents (PDC-A; Malberg et al., 2017) from the PDM-2 (Lingiardi, McWilliams, 2017), to assess levels of emerging personality organization and emerging personality styles/syndromes regarding an adolescent patient in their care. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out to identify the factor structure of the TRQ-A. Reliability of the TRQ-A’s scales was calculated using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. Bivariate correlations between these scales and variables of personality were conducted to assess the criterion validity. Results: EFA revealed six distinct countertransference scales: hostile/devaluated, positive, bored/failing, overwhelmed/scared, overinvolved, sexualized. These scales showed excellent reliability and good validity. They were significantly associated with patients’ levels of personality organization and emerging personality styles/syndromes. In particular, more severe levels of personality organization were related to the bored/failing and overwhelmed/scared countertransference. Narcissistic and antisocial/psychopathic personality styles/syndromes were associated with the hostile/devaluated and overwhelmed/scared therapist responses, and borderline style/syndrome was related to the overwhelmed/scared and overinvolved countertransference. Schizoid personality style/syndrome was associated with the bored/failing countertransference, while impulsive/histrionic style/syndrome was related to the sexualized therapist response. Positive countertransference was related to the obsessional personality style. Conclusion: The TRQ-A is a very useful instrument to evaluate countertransference reactions in clinically sensitive and psychometrically robust ways. Moreover, adolescents’ emerging personality styles/syndromes were consistently associated with specific emotional responses, which suggests that clinicians can make diagnostic and therapeutic use of their responses to patients.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.