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International Journal of Bipolar Disorders

Table 3 Comparisons of personality traits, psychosocial functioning and marital adjustment of couples with a partner with bipolar disorder, with and without a comorbid personality disorder, and healthy control couples

From: A comprehensive assessment of personality traits and psychosocial functioning in parents with bipolar disorder and their intimate partners

 

Couples

Couples with a partner with BD and PD vs healthy control couples

Couples with a partner with BD no PD vs healthy control couples

Couples with a partner with BD and PD vs couples with a partner with BD no PD

One partner with BD

Two healthy control partners

PD

No PD

M (SD)

M (SD)

M (SD)

F

η2

Personality (NEO-PI-R)a

n = 21

n= 37

n= 47

  

Neuroticism

58.52 (7.40)

53.59 (6.93)

44.94 (7.35)

20.37**

.29

✔

✔

 

Extraversion

45.59 (6.18)

49.17 (6.31)

52.10 (5.56)

5.79**

.10

✔

  

Openness

48.79 (9.44)

50.18 (6.60)

52.10 (6.46)

.07

.00

   

Agreeableness

49.29 (6.58)

50.58 (6.98)

52.16 (5.71)

.27

.01

   

Conscientiousness

47.90 (7.55)

46.68 (7.90)

51.06 (5.45)

3.45*

.06

 

✔

 

Negative life events (LES)b

n = 18

n = 30

n = 33

     

Dependent

2.22 (1.34)

2.75 (1.53)

1.32 (1.17)

7.81**

.17

 

✔

 

Independent

.50 (.49)

.33 (.48)

.35 (.41)

1.60

.04

   

Coping skills (CISS)c

n = 21

n = 36

n = 47

     

Task-oriented

45.83 (6.31)

47.57 (8.03)

51.60 (7.20)

2.81

.05

✔

✔

 

Emotion-focused

53.72 (6.54)

51.88 (7.47)

46.19 (6.08)

6.71**

.12

✔

✔

 

Avoidance-oriented

46.72 (4.99)

54.01 (8.48)

45.38 (7.60)

13.93**

.22

 

✔

✔

Social support (ASSI)d

n = 21

n = 37

n = 47

     

Size of social network

9.17 (5.47)

10.73 (5.86)

17.20 (9.22)

6.20**

.11

✔

✔

 

Satisfaction with social network

26.04 (2.90)

25.59 (2.92)

28.27 (1.85)

10.84**

.18

✔

✔

 

Amount of social contact

5.87 (6.44)

7.64 (5.77)

12.44 (8.10)

4.41**

.08

✔

✔

 

Satisfaction with social contact

4.10 (.80)

4.24 (.74)

4.70 (.47)

5.25**

.09

✔

✔

 

Marital adjustment (DAS)e

n = 19

n = 26

n = 46

     

Consensus

48.35 (7.07)

51.88 (6.16)

53.52 (5.44)

5.89**

.12

✔

 

✔

Affectional expression

7.78 (1.84)

8.31 (2.78)

9.23 (1.95)

3.84*

.08

✔

  

Satisfaction

31.68 (8.08)

35.81 (7.25)

39.72 (4.22)

10.88**

.20

✔

✔

✔

Cohesion

13.14 (4.72)

14.69 (5.00)

16.15 (3.32)

3.50*

.07

✔

  

Verbal aggression (CTS)f

n = 19

n = 26

n = 45

     

Inter-partner

22.85 (19.60)

15.24 (19.12)

9.44 (9.34)

2.31

.05

✔

  
  1. Due to non-independence of data and to obtain a global estimate of couple functioning, mean scores across all available parents were used for these analyses when there was more than one parent in a family [number of single-parent families = 11 (7 BD)]
  2. T-scores were used for the Personality and Coping Skills subcategories, *p < .05, ** p < .01
  3. BD: bipolar disorder; PD: personality disorder; ✔: significant group difference
  4. aFrom the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised
  5. bFrom the Life Events Scale
  6. cFrom the Coping Inventory of Stressful Situations
  7. dFrom the Arizona Social Support Interview
  8. eFrom the Dyadic Adjustment Scale
  9. fFrom the Conflict Tactic Scale
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