The prevalence of personality dysfunction and its relationship with risky, impulsive and self-destructive behaviors in general population

Considering the severe implications of risky behavior for the individual and society and the possible role of personality dysfunction in it, the present study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of personality dysfunction and its relation with risky, impulsive and self-destructive behaviors in the general population. In an analytical cross-sectional study, 428 adults were selected from the general population of the country and were measured using risky, impulsive, and self-destructive behavior questionnaire and the short form of the severity indices of personality problems (SIPP-SF). The data was analyzed by correlation tests, t-test, confirmatory factor analysis and latent profile analysis (LPA) using SPSS-26 and Mplus-8 software. The prevalence of personality dysfunction was 59.3% with the estimate made through LPA. Each of the risky behaviors were more associated with a specific type of personality dysfunction, including substance use (r=-0.28, P<0.01) and risky sexual behavior (r=-0.24, P<0.01) with responsibility, aggression (r=-0.32, P<0.01) and criminal behavior (r=-0.28, P<0.01) with self-control and impulsive shopping and driving with social adaptation (r=-0.34, P<0.01) were more correlated. Due to the specific relationship of each personality dysfunction with a specific type of risky behaviors, it is necessary to develop interventions focused on specific personality dysfunction to reduce each of the risky behaviors.