This study tested to what extent the relation between bullying victimization and future symptoms of depression could be explained by victims being more hostile and less assertive than non-involved individuals. Data came from waves 2-4 of the Dutch TRacking Adolescents\' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS). Participants\' bullying experiences were assessed at age 13, interpersonal style at age 16, and depression symptoms at age 19. Mediation analyses were performed primarily on 274 self-reported victims and 1498 non-involved peers. Self-reported victims had an increased risk for depression symptoms. About a third of that risk could be explained by victims\' hostile style, which was also higher than those of non-involved peers. Although victims also reported lower levels of assertiveness than non-involved peers, this interpersonal style did not mediate the link between bullying victimization and depression. Our findings suggest that high hostility, but not low assertiveness, partly explains the increased depression risk of self-reported victims. Therefore, interventions could focus on addressing hostility, to help reduce the likelihood that adolescents who have experienced bullying victimization will have more interpersonal conflicts and mental health problems in the future. Supplementary materials also include analyses for bullies and bully-victims, and for peer-reported measures.

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The efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for reducing anxiety disorder symptoms is well documented. However, limited research has investigated how symptom amelioration is temporally associated with changes in psychosocial functioning, such as interpersonal and social role functioning, during CBT. Participants were 288 (M age = 37.00 [SD = 14.41]; 59.0% female; 69.0% White; 6.6% Hispanic/Latino) outpatients diagnosed with an anxiety disorder who received CBT at a specialized hospital-based clinic. Participants completed the Outcome Questionnaire-45, a measure of symptom distress, social role performance, and interpersonal problems, at initial assessment and prior to each treatment session. Symptom distress and indicators of psychosocial functioning were robustly related during 25 sessions of CBT. Cross-lagged analyses revealed that reductions in symptom distress predicted subsequent improvements in psychosocial functioning during treatment, and vice versa. Associations from symptom distress to subsequent psychosocial functioning evidenced larger effect sizes than the reverse. Lower levels of severity at intake and presence of comorbid depression attenuated the association between symptom reduction and subsequent social role performance improvement. In sum, anxiety symptoms and psychosocial functioning bidirectionally improve during CBT for anxiety disorders. Maximally effective treatments may be those that simultaneously ameliorate symptoms and focus on improving functioning in key domains.

Motivation in general, and social motivation in particular are important for interpersonal functioning in individuals with schizophrenia. Still, their roles after accounting for social cognition, are not well understood. The sample consisted of 147 patients with schizophrenia. General motivation was measured using the Behavioral inhibition/activation scale (BIS/BAS). Social motivation was measured by Passive social withdrawal and Active social avoidance items from PANSS. Interpersonal functioning was evaluated with Birchwood\'s Social Functioning Scale (SFS). We used Exploratory Graph Analysis for network estimation and community detection. Active social avoidance, passive social withdrawal, and social withdrawal/engagement (from SFS) were the most important nodes. In addition, three distinct communities were identified: Social cognition, Social motivation, and Interpersonal functioning. Notably, the BIS and BAS measures of general motivation were not part of any community. BAS showed stronger links to functioning than BIS. Passive social withdrawal was more strongly linked to interpersonal functioning than social cognitive abilities. Results suggest that social motivation, especially social approach, is more closely related to interpersonal functioning in schizophrenia than general motivation. In contrast, we found that general motivation was largely unrelated to social motivation. This pattern highlights the importance of type of motivation for understanding variability in interpersonal difficulties in schizophrenia.

Transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) is an empirically supported treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD) that improves functioning via targeting representations of self affectively relating to others, particularly as evoked in the therapeutic relationship. If change in TFP operates as theorized, then shifts in patterns of \"self affectively relating to others\" should be observed in the transference prior to shifts in daily relationships. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), a patient with BPD rated daily interpersonal events for 2-week periods during 18 months of TFP; at 9 and 18 months these ratings included interactions with the therapist. Results suggest that positive perceptions of her therapist that ran counter to her negatively biased perception in other relationships preceded changes in her perceptions of others. EMA shifts corresponded to improvements in self-reported symptoms, interview-based personality functioning, and therapist assessments. Implications for assimilation of a trusting experience with the therapist as a mechanism of change in TFP are discussed.

BACKGROUND: Attachment theory offers an important framework for understanding interpersonal interaction experiences. In the present study, we examined the neural correlates of attachment patterns and oxytocin in schizophrenic patients (SZP) compared to healthy controls (HC) using fMRI. We assumed that male SZP shows a higher proportion of insecure attachment and an altered level of oxytocin compared to HC. On a neural level, we hypothesized that SZP shows increased neural activation in memory and self-related brain regions during the activation of the attachment system compared to HC.
METHODS: We used an event-related design for the fMRI study based on stimuli that were derived from the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System to examine attachment representations and their neural and hormonal correlates in 20 male schizophrenic patients compared to 20 male healthy controls.
RESULTS: A higher proportion of insecure attachment in schizophrenic patients compared to HC could be confirmed. In line with our hypothesis, Oxytocin (OXT) levels in SZP were significantly lower than in HC. We found increasing brain activations in SZP when confronted with personal relevant sentences before attachment relevant pictures in the precuneus, TPJ, insula, and frontal areas compared to HC. Moreover, we found positive correlations between OXT and bilateral dlPFC, precuneus, and left ACC in SZP only.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite the small sample sizes, the patients\' response might be considered as a mode of dysregulation when confronted with this kind of personalized attachment-related material. In the patient group, we found positive correlations between OXT and three brain areas (bilateral dlPFC, precuneus, left ACC) and may conclude that OXT might modulate within this neural network in SZP.

BACKGROUND: Core impairments in self and other functioning typify individuals with personality disorder. While interpersonal dysfunction is a known element of narcissistic disorders, empirical research investigating intrapersonal elements is lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the internal representations of individuals with grandiose and vulnerable features, as manifested through their attachment styles, and the specific role of identity disturbance in explaining the relationship between pathological narcissism and maladaptive interpersonal functioning.
METHODS: A sample of 270 university students completed the Brief Pathological Narcissism Inventory (B-PNI), the Severity Indices of Personality Problems (SIPP), the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ), and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-32).
RESULTS: Both vulnerable and grandiose narcissism were positively associated with both fearful and preoccupied attachment, and negatively associated with secure attachment, whilst grandiose narcissism was also positively associated with dismissive attachment. Furthermore, unstable representations of self, poor self-reflective functioning, and low sense of purpose fully mediated the relationship between interpersonal problems and grandiose narcissism while partially mediating the relationship between interpersonal problems and vulnerable narcissism.
CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our findings suggest that for individuals presenting with narcissistic features, capacity for adaptive interpersonal functioning is grounded by deficits in identity integration. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Emotional and behavioral variability are unifying characteristics of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Ambulatory assessment (AA) has been used to quantify this variability in terms of the categorical BPD diagnosis, but evidence suggests that BPD instead reflects general personality pathology. This study aimed to clarify the conceptualization of BPD by mapping indices of variability in affect, interpersonal behavior, and perceptions of others onto general and specific dimensions of personality pathology. A sample of participants who met diagnostic criteria for BPD (n = 129) and healthy controls (n = 47) reported on their daily interactions during a 21-day AA protocol. Multilevel SEM was used to examine associations between shared and specific variance in maladaptive traits with dynamic patterns of functioning. The authors found that variability is an indicator of shared trait variance and Negative Affectivity, not any other specific traits, reinforcing the idea that BPD is best understood as general personality pathology.

UNASSIGNED: Paranoid ideation is a core feature of psychosis and is associated with impaired social functioning. Severity of paranoia can fluctuate across time as symptoms wax and wane; however, no study has systematically investigated how this intra-individual variability in paranoia may relate to social impairments and social functioning.
UNASSIGNED: Fifty-five patients with DSM-5 diagnoses and recent paranoia were followed for up to one year and completed the suspiciousness/persecution section (P6) of the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) on a monthly basis to monitor fluctuations in paranoia. Categorical changes between paranoid and non-paranoid status were monitored and tallied. Participants self-reported current paranoia and anxiety levels as well as social functioning when demonstrating paranoia changes.
UNASSIGNED: Most patients showed changes between paranoid categories (60%). Individuals with no paranoia change showed higher current paranoia and lower independence-competence subscores of the Birchwood Social Functioning Scale (SFS) compared with those with one change. Current paranoia and state anxiety explained significant variance in the prosocial activities subscore of SFS, and importantly, paranoia changes accounted for variance above and beyond these effects. Individuals with higher current paranoia participated less in prosocial activities, however those with higher paranoia variability were more involved in social activities. Similarly, individuals with more paranoia variability demonstrated better overall social functioning as measured by the averaged SFS total score.
UNASSIGNED: Paranoia fluctuation is prevalent across time, and both paranoia severity and variability impact social functioning, in that lower levels of paranoia severity and higher levels of paranoia variability are associated with better interpersonal functioning.

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