Personality Disorder and Perceived Parenting in Chinese Students of Divorced and Intact Families

Abstract

Background: Nurturing environment contributes to the personality development of young people, but how inappropriate parental bonding from biological parents influences the personality disorder functioning styles of their offspring in divorced families remains unclear. Objective: We aimed to find out the relationship between parenting styles and students’ disordered personality in divorced families. Methods: The Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and the Parker Personality Measure (PERM) were administered to 60 Chinese students from divorced family (Divorced group) and 120 controls (matched in age and gender) from intact family (Intact group). The depressive tendency of the participants was measured with the Plutchik–van Praag Depression Inventory (PVP). Results: PERM borderline style was more prominent when father was perceived as secondary carer than primary carer in Divorced group. When father was perceived as secondary carer, PERM borderline style was more obvious in Divorced group than in Intact group. Maternal autonomy denial and care predicted PERM narcissistic and dependent styles in Divorced group, when mother was perceived as primary carer. In the Intact group, when mother was perceived as secondary carer, maternal care was lower than when mother was perceived as primary carer. Some parental PBI scales predicted certain PERM scales regardless of the carer order. Conclusions: The results imply that in divorced family, biological father should be more involved in young people’s daily life, and biological mother should show more care and less autonomy denial. In intact family, more care, less freedom control, and less autonomy denial from both parents are important in the personality development of their offspring.