Perceived parenting styles and disordered personality traits in adolescent and adult students and in personality disorder patients

To examine the relationship between perceptions of parenting and personality, the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI; Parker, Tupling, & Brown, 1979) and the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology - Basic Questionnaire (DAPP; Livesley & Jackson, in press) were administered to 167 adolescent and 422 adult students, as well as to 198 patients with personality disorders. Principal component analysis of the PBI yielded 3 factors in all three samples: Care, Freedom Control, and Autonomy Denial. Chinese personality disorder patients perceived less parental Care than did adolescent and adult students, more paternal Freedom Control than did adults, and more paternal Autonomy Denial than did adolescents. Most regression coefficients between PBI and DAPP scales were moderate, but consistent with previous literature. These findings are similar to those found in the non-Chinese samples, suggesting that parental bonding is important in the development of personality disorders across different nations.