Bullying girls - changes after brief strategic family therapy: a randomized, prospective, controlled trial with one-year follow-up.

BACKGROUND: Many girls bully others. They are conspicuous because of their risk-taking behavior, increased anger, problematic interpersonal relationships and poor quality of life. Our aim was to determine the efficacy of brief strategic family therapy (BSFT) for bullying-related behavior, anger reduction, improvement of interpersonal relationships, and improvement of health-related quality of life in girls who bully, and to find out whether their expressive aggression correlates with their distinctive psychological features. METHODS: 40 bullying girls were recruited from the general population: 20 were randomly selected for 3 months of BSFT. Follow-up took place 12 months after the therapy had ended. The results of treatment were examined using the Adolescents' Risk-taking Behavior Scale (ARBS), the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-D), and the SF-36 Health Survey (SF-36). RESULTS: In comparison with the control group (CG) (according to the intent-to-treat principle), bullying behavior in the BSFT group was reduced (BSFT-G from n = 20 to n = 6; CG from n = 20 to n = 18, p = 0.05) and statistically significant changes in all risk-taking behaviors (ARBS), on most STAXI, IIP-D, and SF-36 scales were observed after BSFT. The reduction in expressive aggression (Anger-Out scale of the STAXI) correlated with the reduction on several scales of the ARBS, IIP-D, and SF-36. Follow-up a year later showed relatively stable events. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that bullying girls suffer from psychological and social problems which may be reduced by the use of BSFT. Expressive aggression in girls appears to correlate with several types of risk-taking behavior and interpersonal problems, as well as with health-related quality of life.

Anger, interpersonal relationships, and health-related quality of life in bullying boys who are treated with outpatient family therapy: a randomized, prospective, controlled trial with 1 year of follow-up.

OBJECTIVE: Ten to 30% of students engage in bullying behavior. Bullies stand out on account of increased anger, poor interpersonal relationships, and poor quality of life. Our aim was to determine the effectiveness of outpatient family psychotherapy as a monotherapy for anger reduction and improvement of behavior and interpersonal relationships and of health-related quality of life in male youths with bullying behavior. METHODS: Twenty-two boys with bullying behavior took part in a family therapy program for 6 months. The control group was also composed of 22 youths and took part in a placebo intervention program. Every 2 weeks, results were checked with the Adolescents Risky-Behavior Scale (ARBS), the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-D), and the SF-36 Health Survey (SF-36). Follow-up testing took place 12 months after treatment. RESULTS: In comparison with the control group (according to the intention-to-treat principle), bullying behavior was reduced (family therapy group: from n = 22 to n = 6; control group: from n = 22 to n = 20). Significant changes on all ARBS scales and on the STAXI scales State-Anger, Trait-Anger, Anger-Out, and Anger-Control were observed after 6 months. In the IIP-D, significant differences were found on the scales for overly autocratic, overly competitive, overly introverted, overly expressive, and exploitable/compliant. In the SF-36, significant differences were observed in general health perceptions, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, and mental health. The reduction in expression of anger correlated with a reduction in several scales of the ARBS, IIP-D, and SF-36. Follow-up after 1 year showed relatively stable, lasting treatment effects. CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that outpatient family therapy seems to be an effective method of reducing anger and improving interpersonal relationships and health-related quality of life in male youths with bullying behavior.

Sexual abuse in childhood and youth as psychopathologically relevant life occurrence: cross-sectional survey.

AIM: To assess the perpetrators of sexual abuse in childhood, forms of simultaneous abuse, and characteristics of the families of origin, and the possible effects of abuse on health in adult life. METHODS: A cross sectional study conducted between 1998 and 2002 included a random group of 936 inpatients (723 women) aged (mean+/-standard deviation) 41.0+/-2.5 years at the psychosomatic clinic in Simbach, Germany. The following questionnaires, previously validated in German, were used to assess the patients: Questionnaire for Life Story and Partnership, Scale for Survey of Quality of Life, Existential Orientation Scale, Leipzig Incidence and Psychological Stress Questionnaire, Questionnaire for Assessment of One's Own Body, Survey of Life Satisfaction, Frankfurt Physical Concept Scale, Giessen Complaint Survey, and the Survey for Collection of Health Behavior Data. We compared the inpatients who had been sexually abused in their childhood (n=250) with other psychiatric inpatients in the control group (n=486). RESULTS: Out of 250 sexually abused patients, 25.7% were victimized by fathers/stepfathers, 4% by mothers/stepmothers, 12.4% by aunts or uncles, 10% by brothers or sisters, 7.6% by grandmothers/grandfathers, 30.1% by family acquaintances, and 29.3% by strangers. Unlike the parents of patients in the control group, the parents of sexually abused patients had more conflicts, especially over alcohol consumption (p<0.001) and extramarital affairs (p<0.001), they divorced more frequently during the first seven years of the patient's life (p<0.001), and had more underlying emotional (p<0.001) and physical illnesses (p=0.006). Significantly more sexually abused patients reported having poor concentration (odds ratio [OR]=5.03; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.98-9.70; p<0.001) and sexual handicaps (OR=5.16; 95% CI=1.81-11.39; p<0.001), tended to hide their body (OR=3.65; 95% CI=1.69-7.30; p<0.001), abused illicit drugs (OR=2.38; 95% CI=1.08-6.01; p<0.001), had borderline personality disorder (OR=4.21; 95% CI=2.44-8.40; p<0.001), and suicidal ideation (OR=2.87; 95% CI=1.71-5.96; p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The patients who were sexually abused in childhood had significantly less satisfactory lives and more frequent psychiatric illnesses, suicidal ideation, disturbed social functioning and perception of the body, and psychosomatic diseases.

[Psychosocial characteristics in persons who often change their psychotherapists]. / Zur psychopathologischen und psychosozialen Charakteristik von Patienten, die häufig ihre Psychotherapeuten wechseln.

This study was performed on a clinic group of patients (n = 1000, 83.9% responder) to test characteristics of persons who switched psychotherapists on three or more occasions (n = 74). Compared with the group of minor variation, these patients had higher rates of psychosomatic symptoms, lower systemic operativeness, a dissatisfying sexuality, tended towards alcohol and pharmaceutical abuse, and had significant higher exposure in infancy to violence and sexual abuse (all p < 0.01 after Bonferroni correction). Psychosocial factors including early experience in forming relationships in addition to current factors appear to play a decisive role in a person's dropout liability as well as the attitude to therapy.

Chronic fatigue and indicators of long-term employment disability in psychosomatic inpatients.

The major goal of this study was to determine indictors of long-term disability for psychosomatic inpatients with chronic fatigue syndrome. To this end, a cross-sectional study was performed with a random sample of patients (n=1000, response rate: 83.9%) at a psychosomatic inpatient clinic. 51.1% of the patients (n=429) reported intensely persistent exhaustion that had no logical relation to actual exertion. 159 (37.1%) patients in this group were disabled from working and these comprised the main target group of this study. Significantly more patients in the target group worked part time, were disabled for a disproportionately long period of time (50.9% of all were disabled for more than 6 months in the previous year), and felt stressed because of conflicts with their superiors and/or colleagues (in each case, P<0.01). While more frequent psychological comorbidity was not found, they reported physical complaints more often. It was not the patients fit for work who felt more burdened with chronic fatigue, but rather the employment-disabled, who were actually exposed to fewer demands. These patients had, in comparison with those fit to work, a stronger fixation on somatic complaints, inadequate perception of physical and psychic sensations, difficulties getting along with other people and in coping with a regular job (in each case, P<0.01). Prospective examination of these indicators could help detect predictor variables for long-term disability in chronic fatigue. Such predictors could contribute to timely social-medical assessment and treatment.