Relationship between perceived parenting styles and personality disorders.

摘要

This research examines the relationship between parenting styles and personality disorders. As part of a larger project that considers the 14 personality disorders conceptualized by Millon, this study is concerned specifically with histrionic, borderline, and compulsive personality disorders. A new measure was developed, the PPSI (Perceived Parenting Style Inventory), designed to operationalize specific parenting traits as described by Millon. In addition to pathological parenting styles, a sub-scale was included to reflect a healthy parent profile, according to the parenting principles espoused by Dreikurs. The PPSI was administered along with an MCMI-III (Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory---3rd edition) to a community sample of 330 individuals. Cronbach's alpha showed the PPSI sub-scales for borderline, compulsive and healthy parenting styles to have adequate reliability. Internal consistency for the histrionic sub-scale was not demonstrated. To establish external validity, PPSI sub-scales were then correlated with MCMI-III scores. Based on the sample, data showed a highly significant correlation between the borderline parenting style and Borderline PD. In addition, results showed highly significant negative correlation with 11 of 14 personality disorders measured by the MCMI-III. Neither the histrionic nor compulsive parenting styles showed a statistical relationship with their corresponding MCMI-III scales, but Histrionic PD and Compulsive PD both correlated positively with the PPSI sub-scale for healthy parenting.