About the project
Personality pathology can manifest in very different ways, as extreme distrust and paranoia, emotional volatility, reckless disregard for the wellbeing of others, crippling perfectionism or social inhibition.
Since personality pathology can have a detrimental impact on virtually all social interactions, the risk of distress and negative outcomes also extends to people in close relationships with those afflicted, in particular their spouses and children.
With this study we aim to better understand how personality pathology changes through life, and what long-term psychosocial outcomes they lead to. We also want to shed light on the underlying causes of pathological personality, how they influence other members within families.
Objectives
- To investigate the developmental trajectories of personality pathology from early to middle adulthood, determine the degrees of stable and time varying etiological factors, and their longitudinal relationship with clinical disorders.
- Evaluate life-course functional, psychosocial and health outcomes of personality pathology, as evidenced by information from Norwegian national registries.
- Determine the processes by which personality pathology and clinical disorders in parents increase the risk of ill mental health and negative psychosocial outcomes in offspring, and visa versa.
Methods:
In addition to using data from previous waves of the study, we will also conduct a major new round of data collection. This time we will not only invite twins from the original 1969-79 cohort, but also their partners, non-twin siblings, and children over 16 years. In addition, we will make use of the rich data in Norwegian national registries to assess life-course outcomes.
Since people with pathological personality traits, such as avoidant or antisocial traits, often decline to participate in research studies, an important part of this study will be to investigate personality disorders using registry data from the complete 1967-79 cohort of Norwegian citizens, as well as their close relatives. This gives us a unique opportunity not only to tackle non-response in our data collections, but also to critically evaluate the assumptions underlying twin studies.
Financing
The project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council from 2021 until 2026.