Gender bias in self-report personality disorder inventories

K. A. Lindsay, L. M. Sankis, T. A. Widiger

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

39 Scopus citations

Abstract

There has been considerable controversy and research regarding gender biases in the diagnosis of personality disorders, but few studies have explored whether personality disorder self-report inventories might contain gender biases. The current study investigated whether items from three commonly used inventories evidenced a potential for gender bias. Subjects were from outpatient mental health clinics. Items were considered gender biased if they exhibited gender differences and failed to correlate with or, more importantly, correlated negatively with dysfunction. Thirty-eight items evidenced potential bias, the majority of which were from Narcissistic scales. The implications of the results for the clinical assessment of purportedly maladaptive personality traits and for the construction of personality disorder scales are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)218-232
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Personality Disorders
Volume14
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2000

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Psychology
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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