The relationship between defense styles and personality disorders

The relationships between personality disorder clusters and defense mechanism factors were evaluated in 31 female and 24 male psychiatric inpatients from an urban hospital, who ranged in age from 19 to 57 years. The degree to which defense factors predicted personality disorder psychopathology was assessed, with gender entered as a covariate. The degree of borderline psychopathology had the strongest relationship with the Immature defense style (F(1,54) = 9.83, R-2 = .54, p < .05). The results support previous research demonstrating a stronger link between Borderline personality disorder and defense styles relative to other personality disorders.