Personality traits and pathology in older and younger incarcerated women

Personality disorders were examined in 157 incarcerated women, using the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP; Clark, 1996) to assess 10 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised (DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) diagnostic categories and dimensions and 15 domains of trait/temperament relevant to disordered personality. Similar to both community samples and incarcerated men, older women had lower rates of personality disorders than younger women, and the difference was mostly accounted for by differences in the Cluster B disorders. In an exploratory analysis of trait and temperament scales, the older women also scored lower in Aggression, Disinhibition, Entitlement, Exhibitionism, Impulsivity, and Manipulativeness while younger women scored lower in Workaholism and Propriety. These findings suggest that remission of antisocial behavior in women may be associated with changes in lower order personality traits or temperament.