A comparative study of ego-state prevalence and personality traits of alcohol problematic and non-alcohol problematic repeat DUI offenders.

摘要

This study compared group mean differences of repeat Driving Under the Influence (DUI) offenders classified as either alcohol problematic or non-alcohol problematic on 12 variables related to ego-state and personality. The participants were 128 repeat DUI offenders who were randomly selected for inclusion based on their scores on the Self-Administered Alcoholism Screening Test (SAAST) (Swenson & Morse, 1975). The SAAST was developed and evaluated as being effective for detecting if people are at risk of developing alcoholism and consists of 37 questions. The Heyer Ego-state Profile Questionnaire (Heyer, 1979) divides responses into five ego-state categories of Critical Parent, Nurturing Parent, Adult, Free Child and Adapted Child. Concurrently, two appended categories were added for Adapted Child-Compliant and Adapted Chile-Rebellious. Finally, the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1988), a measure of personality categorized by facets of Extraversion, Neuroticism, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, served as dependent variables to assess if personality characteristics, namely rebellion and excitement seeking, differ. The results indicate that participants who are classified as Non-Alcohol Problematic score significantly higher on measures of excitement seeking, Adapted Child-Compliance and Agreeableness when compared to participants classified as Alcohol Problematic. Concurrently, participants classified as Alcohol Problematic score significantly higher on measures of Adapted Child-Rebellion and Neuroticism when compared to those classified as Non-Alcohol Problematic. Overall Adapted Child scores were found to be consistent between groups. The findings indicate that personality differences, specifically excitement seeking, rebellion and compliance, differ among groups of repeat DUI offenders when a distribution when a distinction is made between alcohol problematic and non alcohol problematic status.