Associations between pathological personality traits, functional impairment, and personality disorder: Controlling for basic personality traits and identity disturbance.

Abstract

Contemporary models conceptualize personality disorder (PD) as a combination of personality dysfunction and pathological personality traits. However, some perspectives suggest that pathological traits, along with functional impairment, may be sufficient indicators of PD. This study builds on previous research by investigating whether identity disturbance, defined as impaired coherence, inconsistency, and discontinuity in the sense of self, contributes to pathological personality trait scores beyond basic five-factor personality traits. Additionally, it examines whether the associations between pathological personality trait domains, PD diagnosis, and functional impairment remain when controlling for identity disturbance and basic personality traits. The study included two samples: 776 community individuals (344 with a psychiatric history) and 77 psychiatric patients diagnosed with PD. Structural equation models with latent factors indicated that pathological personality trait domains can be described as a combination of variance from basic personality traits and to a lesser extent identity disturbance. When identity disturbance was controlled for, however, pathological trait domains no longer differentiated individuals with PD from community participants with psychiatric histories. Furthermore, individual pathological trait domains did not demonstrate incremental validity in predicting functional impairment beyond the contributions of basic personality traits and identity disturbance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).