Personality disorders of the parents of primary school students and its relationship to their oppositional defiant disorder

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 oppositional defiant 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 oppositional defiant disorder. The researchers prepared four measures to examine parent’s personality disorders، and oppositional defiant disorder according to DSM-5. 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 oppositional defiant 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 oppositional defiant disorder، based on the parents report، it was found that %5 children suffer from this and %6 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 oppositional defiant disorder، suggesting that males manifested higher level of oppositional defiant disorder than females. Finally، the result of the study indicated a positive correlation between parents’ antisocial personality disorder and children’s oppositional defiant disorder.