Background: Dysregulating emotional and behavioural phenomena of patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), such as repeated non-suicidal self-injury, are strongly affecting patients' family members or partners. In addition, critical disapproval of this emotional and behavioural phenomena by family members and reconciling understanding, affects the patients' sensitivity for rejection. As a result, individuals with BPD appear to have less satisfying social support. This negative spiral

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... possibly elicits further challenging behaviour. Therapy programs for BPD might therefore benefit from the inclusion of family members or partners in the treatment. One of the programs that includes family members is the network training of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). This study examines the impact of the DBT network training on the perceived criticism of both patients and network members. Method: This study follows a pre-post design where a DBT network training is given to 33 patients (mean age 25 years) and 61 relatives during 8 group sessions. The degree of perceived criticism is measured by using a self-report questionnaire. Results: Results show that the overall scores of the perceived criticism scale decrease significantly for both patients and relatives after following the DBT network training. More specific, item scores of both patients and relatives concerning how critical they looked towards the other and how critical they thought the other looked at them also decreased significantly after following the DBT network training. Conclusion: Findings suggest that a DBT network training may be instrumental in decreasing levels of perceived criticism. Further research may focus on the putative mechanisms of behaviour such as improved perspective taking, behavioural change, and the evaluation of social cues.