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Temperament and personality typologies in adult offspring of alcoholics
C M Ohannessian1, V M Hesselbrock
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington 06030-2103, USA.
Objective:
The primary goal of the present study was to derive temperament and personality typologies among adult offspring of alcoholics and their controls in two separate samples. Additional aims were to examine the relation between temperament/personality typologies and drinking behaviors, and to explore the effect of antisocial behavior on this relation.
Method:
The first sample assessed consisted of middle-aged adult men and women (82 offspring of alcoholics and 72 controls), whereas the second sample included only young adult men who were oversampled for antisocial personality disorder (44 offspring of alcoholics and 47 controls).
Results:
Two distinct temperament typologies emerged across both samples. One typology ("Cluster 1") was characterized by high levels of harm avoidance and pessimism, and low levels of sensation and self-esteem whereas the other typology ("Cluster 2") was characterized by the reverse of these characteristics. Cluster 1 individuals also tended to exhibit many characteristics of the "difficult temperament", whereas Cluster 2 individuals did not. In addition, Cluster 1 individuals were found to consume more alcohol and to have higher MAST scores than Cluster 2 individuals. However, when antisocial behavior was considered, the typologies were unrelated to any of the indices of drinking behaviors in both samples.
Conclusions:
The temperament typologies that emerged in the present study are consistent with the literature. More importantly, these typologies were found across two separate samples and among both offspring of alcoholics and offspring of nonalcoholics. Finally, the relationship between temperament/personality typologies and drinking behaviors was generally nonsignificant once antisocial behavior was considered.