Stability and consistency of maladaptive personality domains across multiple admissions to an acute care setting

Personality has recently been positioned as one overarching framework for conceptualizing psychopathology. Further, the DSM-5 put forth an alternative dimensional model of personality pathology which includes measurement of maladaptive personality domains. Few studies have examined the stability of maladaptive personality scores, and even fewer have done so using clinical samples not characterized by the diagnosis of personality disorder. The goal of the current study, therefore, was to examine the extent to which individual ratings of maladaptive personality were stable across multiple presentations in a clinically acute setting. Using a large sample of patients who repeatedly presented-between 2 and 4 times-for treatment at a partial hospital program (N = 482), we assessed the extent to which their scores on the Personality Inventory for DSM-5, Brief Form (PID-5 BF), differed across subsequent admissions. Results indicated that across admissions, individuals showed little differences in scores on the PID-5 BF across time, in either rank-order stability, or mean level differences. In addition, though previous scores predicted subsequent admission scores of the same maladaptive personality domains, there were few between-domain temporal associations. These results suggest that DSM-5 personality pathology domains appear highly stable and consistent over time. In addition, these findings bear implications for the continued understanding of how maladaptive personality is associated with both personality and nonpersonality psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).