Inclusion and exclusion criteria
| Type | Inclusion criteria | Exclusion criteria |
|---|---|---|
| Sample | Mothers must have been diagnosed with BPD using standardised assessment procedures, such as the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-II; First et al34), the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB-R; Zanarini, et al35), the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality (SIDP-IV; Pfohl et al36) or the Borderline Evaluation of Severity over Time (BEST; Pfohl et al37). Older studies using diagnostic techniques based on earlier editions of the DSM also acceptable | Diagnosis by any non-standardised assessment procedures |
| Mothers must be the primary caregiver to their child/children | Mothers not the primary caregiver to their children | |
| Mothers must be aged 18 or over | Mothers aged under 18 | |
| Children must be aged 18 or under | Children aged over 18 | |
| Procedure | Studies must measure factors influencing the mother's parenting and/or her child's functioning | Study does not measure these factors |
| Style | Studies must be written in English | Studies written in any other language |
| Studies must present outcome data | Study does not present unique outcome data (eg, reviews, commentaries, opinion pieces, books or chapters) | |
| Studies must be from peer-reviewed journals | Study is not peer-reviewed. Therefore, dissertations were excluded | |
| Studies must be quantitative in design | Case studies and qualitative papers were excluded |
BPD, borderline personality disorder; DSM, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.