Association Between Maladaptive Personality Traits and Violence Risk

Previous research has shown that maladaptive personality traits in the DSM-5 Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) are associated with potential for violence. AMPD traits can be measured at varying levels of specificity, ranging from broad personality domains to more specific trait facets. The level of abstraction at which traits might be optimal for predicting violence remains unclear. In this study, we used hierarchical principal component analysis to construct a hierarchical structure of AMPD traits and a Bayesian approach to multiple regression to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of traits at different levels of specificity for predicting violence potential in a sample of college students (N = 922). Results suggest that, in general, maladaptive traits account for a large amount of variance in potential for violence and that validity increases with greater complexity in the trait model. These findings add to previous research on the applications of AMPD traits and have implications for the use of these traits in applied risk assessments. Public Significance Statement This study showed that maladaptive aspects of personality are associated with potential for violence among college students. This is especially the case for the trait assessments with either five general traits or 25 specific traits.