Parental bonding and personality in relation to a lifetime history of depression

This study explores whether personality is mediating the effects of adverse parenting on having had a lifetime history of major depressive disorder an d whether personality dimensions, related to the development of lifetime de pression, are disposed by adverse parenting in cross-sectional data derived from an epidemiological sample of volunteer workers. Of 447 individuals wh o were asked to complete the Munich Personality Test (MPT), the Parental Bo nding Instrument (PBI) and the Inventory to Diagnose Depression Lifetime ve rsion (IDDL), 322 subjects were included in the analyses (150 male and 172 female; and 38 were diagnosed as having had a history of depression). Compa risons in fit between logistic regression models revealed that a combinatio n of frustration tolerance and rigidity among personality dimensions, as me asured by the MPT, and maternal care among the PBI scales were most primary in predicting a lifetime history of depression. Maternal care was, however , not significantly predictive of dimensional scores on the personality dim ensions. Neither frustration tolerance nor rigidity was predicted by any PB I scale. When entering the variables sequentially, maternal care and the pe rsonality variables were additive and independent risk factors in predictin g a lifetime history of depression. The results of this preliminary study r aised an objection to a hypothesis that adverse parenting experienced in ch ildhood disposes one to a dysfunctional personality, which then predisposes one to the development of depression in adulthood.