Parental rearing styles and personality disorders in prisoners and forensic patients

In the present study it was hypothesized that men with a criminal status (forensic inpatients and prisoners) would report more pathological rearing styles of their parents than men from the general population, after accounting for the influence of personality pathology. The results showed that forensic inpatients reported significantly less care from their mothers and more protection from both parents. No differences on paternal care were found though. The prisoners were less clearly distinguished from normal controls with respect to parental rearing. They perceived their fathers as more protective, however, only when the influence of the personality disorder category was controlled for and not when the influence of personality disorder features was controlled for. Further, prisoners perceived their mothers as significantly more caring. The results with respect to criminal and patient status stayed the same after controlling for the influence of personality pathology. The analyses further showed that cluster B pathology when measured as one construct was significantly associated with all parental rearing variables: less care and more protection. Also, cluster A and cluster C pathology, criminal status and inpatients status did not influence these results. When the cluster B disorders were examined separately though, a less clear picture emerged. The categorical defined borderline personality disorder was significantly related to all four rearing variables: less care and more protection. For cluster C pathology the opposite was found: when measured categorically no significant relations with rearing were found and when measured dimensionally all relations were significant. When measured dimensionally, antisocial personality features were significantly associated with less care from both parents and with more protection from the mother. When measured categorically, only the relationship with care of father remained significant. Finally, cluster A pathology was related significantly only to (low) maternal care. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.