Premorbid personality characteristics and attachment style moderate the effect of injury severity on occupational outcome in traumatic brain injury: Another aspect of reserve

Abstract

The concept of “reserve” has been proposed to account for the mismatch between brain pathology and its clinical expression. Prior efforts to characterize this concept focused mostly on brain or cognitive reserve measures. The present study was a preliminary attempt to evaluate premorbid personality and emotional aspects as potential moderators in moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury. Using structural equation modeling and multiple regression analyses, we found that premorbid personality characteristics provided the most robust moderator of injury severity on occupational outcome. Findings offer preliminary support for premorbid personality features as another relevant reserve construct in predicting outcome in this population.

Keywords:

• Traumatic brain injury
• Brain reserve
• Cognitive reserve
• Functional outcome
• Personality

Acknowledgments

The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion, the first two authors should be regarded as joint first authors. This study was carried out as part of a MA thesis by Michal Sela-Kaufman at The Academic College of Tel-Aviv–Yaffo, Tel-Aviv–Yaffo, Israel. The authors thank Irene Kopel for her assistance with interviewing participants and data management. No conflicts of interest exist for any of the authors.