Modeling Personality Disorder Symptoms Based on Parenting Styles, Temperament, and Childhood Emotional Abuse: The Mediating Roles of Ego Strength and Impulse Control in Patients with Hypertension

Maryam Kharamin; Javid  Peymani; Mehdi  Dehestani

Authors

Maryam Kharamin Ph.D. student, Department of Psychology, SR.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1930-9310
Javid Peymani Department of Psychology, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4035-1150
Mehdi Dehestani Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran Author https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9127-758X

Keywords:

Personality Disorders; Parenting Styles; Temperament; Childhood Emotional Abuse; Ego Strength; Impulse Control; Hypertension.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to develop and test a structural model of personality disorder symptoms based on parenting styles, temperament, and childhood emotional abuse, considering the mediating roles of ego strength and impulse control among patients with hypertension.

Methods and Materials: This descriptive-correlational study employed structural equation modeling. The statistical population comprised patients with hypertension who attended hospitals and healthcare centers in Tehran during the second half of 2023. A total of 250 patients were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected using the Personality Styles and Disorders Inventory, Baumrind Parenting Styles Questionnaire, Cloninger Temperament and Character Inventory, Bernstein Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Markstrom Ego Strength Inventory, and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. The hypothesized structural model and direct and indirect relationships among the variables were examined using SPSS and AMOS software.

Findings: The proposed structural model demonstrated an acceptable fit to the observed data. Parenting styles had significant direct effects on impulse control and personality disorder symptoms. Temperament significantly predicted ego strength, while childhood emotional abuse exerted significant direct effects on both ego strength and personality disorder symptoms. Ego strength had a significant negative direct effect on personality disorder symptoms, whereas impaired impulse control had a significant positive direct effect on these symptoms. Bootstrap analyses confirmed that ego strength significantly mediated the relationships of temperament and childhood emotional abuse with personality disorder symptoms. Impulse control also significantly mediated the relationship between parenting styles and personality disorder symptoms. Collectively, the predictor and mediator variables accounted for 71% of the variance in personality disorder symptoms.

Conclusion: Personality disorder symptoms in patients with hypertension appear to arise from the interaction of family-related experiences, dispositional characteristics, and adverse childhood emotional experiences. Ego strength and impulse control constitute important psychological mechanisms through which these distal factors influence personality pathology.

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