THE USE OF THE HARMANN BOUNDARY QUESTIONNAIRE WITH AN ADOLESCENT POPULATION

Hartmann (1991) recently developed the Boundary Questionnaire (BQ) to measure the structure of mental boundaries in adults. To date however, the scale has not been used with an adolescent population. The presen t study assessed the validity of the BQ for adolescents by determining whether the scale would differentiate between adolescents in manners consistent with adult findings. As predicted, adolescents who demonstr ated thinner boundaries on the BQ tended to be female, and reported si gnificantly greater levels of dream recall, nightmare frequency and ni ghtmare disturbance when compared with a control group of thick bounda ry adolescents, confirming the usage of the BQ as a valid personality measure. The findings are discussed within the framework of adolescent ago developed.