Personality disorder symptomatology in Belgian emerging adults: Associations with identity processes and statuses

ABSTRACT

Individual differences in identity development are commonly captured by identity statuses, representing combinations of high and/or low scores on identity exploration and commitment processes. Although identity impairment is considered a potential diagnostic criterion of all personality disorders (PDs) in Section III of DSM-5, studies that relate identity processes or statuses to PDs are limited. The current study examined associations between identity processes and statuses, and dimensionally measured PDs among 343 Belgian emerging adults (71.4% female; M_age = 22.73, SD = 2.85, age range = 18–30). Stepwise cluster analysis on the identity processes revealed six identity statuses: achievement, foreclosure, searching moratorium, troubled diffusion, carefree diffusion, and an undifferentiated status. Generally, commitment making and identification with commitment were negatively associated with PDs, whereas ruminative exploration was positively related to PDs. Individuals in troubled and carefree diffusion statuses reported the highest mean scores on PD symptomatology, whereas individuals in achievement and foreclosure statuses reported the lowest mean PD scores. The present findings suggest that individuals who appear unable to settle on identifying-defining commitments are prone to the highest levels of PD symptomatology.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity
• identity processes
• identity status
• cluster analysis
• personality disorders

Acknowledgments

The authors like to thank Julie Michiels, Marie Govaerts, Eva Helsen, and Julie Mertens for their help with the data-collection. The authors like to thank Tinne Buelens for a critical revision of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

Notes

¹ For ease of reading, we sometimes use the term PD (Personality Disorder), but it concerns dimensionally measured PD symptomatology.

² Correlations were similar when controlling for age in a partial correlational analysis.

Additional information

Funding

This study was not funded.