The Relations between Narrative Identity and Personality Pathology among Clinical Adolescents: Findings from a Multi-Ethnic Asian Sample

Abstract

Adolescence is a period where personality difficulties can start emerging. At the same time, a great deal of development in narrative identity takes place. Given that identity impairments are a key feature in personality pathology, it is useful to understand how pathological traits and narrative identity features are related. The current study addressed this by linking pathological personality trait domains to narrative identity features in clinically-referred Singaporean adolescents. Participants (n = 118, M_age = 16.82) wrote narratives about a turning point in their lives. These narratives were coded for themes of agency, communion, self-event connection, redemption, and coherence. Communion was significantly and substantially associated with pathological trait domains of negative affectivity, detachment, disinhibition, and psychoticism, although the effect sizes were modest. Whether a lack of communion themes contribute to the development of personality pathology or whether the former is an expression of the latter is an open question for future research.

Disclosure statement

The authors show no conflict of interest with anyone.

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (016.155.353).