Personality disorders (antisocial, borderline, and narcissistic) among parents and their relationship to behavioral disorders among basic education students

Abstract

The current study aimed to examine the prevalence of certain personality disorders، including antisocial، borderline and narcissistic among parents of basic education students. Similarly، it aimed to examine the prevalence of conduct disorder among basic education students، and the differences in the prevalence of these disorders according to gender. The current study also aimed to investigate the contribution of parents’ personality disorders in the variance of children’s conduct disorder. The researchers prepared three measures to examine parent’s personality disorders. A questionnaire by Abdullah (2019)، which was according to DSM-5، was utilized to assess conduct disorder. Regarding the study sample، the data was collected throughout a multi-stages random sampling method. One thousand eight hundred parents (900 fathers and 900 mothers) of third، fourth and fifth grade children in Sulaymanyeah basic education schools participated in the current study. Along with the parents، sixty teachers also filled out the conduct disorder questionnaire. The results indicated that the prevalence of antisocial personality disorder was %1 for both parents، and the prevalence of borderline personality disorder among mother was %2 and was %3 for father respectively. The narcissistic personality reached %5 according to the mothers’ questionnaire and was %4 according to the fathers’ questionnaire. Concerning the prevalence of children’s conduct disorder، based on the parents report، it was found that %08 children suffer from this disorder ، and %07 based on the teacher reports. The findings also showed no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of parent’s antisocial personality disorder. However، a significant difference was noticed in borderline personality disorder in favor of the fathers. In addition، the prevalence of narcissistic personality disorder was found to be higher among mother compared to fathers. Gender difference was also found in conduct disorder، suggesting that males manifested higher level of conduct disorder than females. Finally، the result of the study indicated a positive correlation between parents’ antisocial personality disorder and children’s conduct disorder.