PSYCHOSOCIAL PREDICTORS OF PERSONALITY-DISORDER TRAITS IN A NONCLINICAL SAMPLE

This research investigated the relationship between DSM-III-R Axis II personality disorders measured by the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inven tory and a number of psychosocial variables, namely, perceived stress, self-esteem, social desirability, self-efficacy, hopelessness, anger expression, coping, locus of control and optimism. These variables wer e reduced to six factors through a principal components analysis with a varimax rotation. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to ascertain the percentage of variance accounted for by the six psychos ocial factors in predicting each of the 11 personality disorders. The data were obtained from 157 introductory psychology students. The resu lts indicate a distinguishing pattern of association between psychosoc ial factors and specific personality disorders. The factor representin g perceived stress and self-esteem explains a relatively large percent age of variance in almost all the personality disorders. Unexpectedly, coping contributes very little to the total variance in any personali ty disorder. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.