Citation

South SC, Turkheimer E, Oltmanns TF. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 2008; 76(5): 769-780.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, USA. ssouth@psych.purdue.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/a0013346

PMID

18837594

PMCID

PMC2613754

Abstract

Pathological personality is strongly linked with interpersonal impairment, yet no study to date has examined the relationship between concurrent personality pathology and dysfunction in marriage--a relationship that most people find central to their lives. In a cross-sectional study of a community sample of married couples (N = 82), the authors used multilevel modeling to estimate the association of self- and spouse-reported symptoms of personality disorder (PD) with levels of marital satisfaction and verbal aggression and perpetration of physical violence. Inclusion of self- and spouse report of total PD symptoms resulted in improved model fit and greater variance explained, with much of the improvement coming after the addition of spouse report. The incremental validity of spouse report for several of the 10 PD scales was supported for marital satisfaction and verbal aggression, particularly for the Borderline and Dependent PD scales.

Language: en