A cross-cultural study of the higher-order structures underlying personality disorders in French-speaking Africa and Switzerland.

Most studies about the higher-order dimensions to be considered in order to parsimoniously describe Personality Disorders (PDs) have identified between two and four factors but there is still no consensus about their exact number. In this context, the cultural stability of these structures might be a criterion to be considered. The aim of this study was to identify stable higher-order structures of PD traits in a French-speaking African and Swiss sample (N = 2,711). All subjects completed the IPDE screening questionnaire. Using Everett's criterion and conducting a series of principal component analyses, a cross-culturally stable two- and four-factor structure were identified, associated with a total congruence coefficient of .98 and .94, respectively, after Procrustes rotation. Moreover, these two structures were also highly replicable across the four African regions considered, North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, and Mauritius, with a mean total congruence coefficient of .97 and .87, respectively. The four-factor structure presented the advantage of being similar to Livesely's four components and of describing the ten PDs more accurately.

Personality disorders and the five-factor model among French speakers in Africa and Europe.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the relation between personality disorders (PDs) and the Five-Factor Model (FFM)--a dimensional model describing normal personality traits known for its invariance across cultures--in 2 different cultural settings. Several authors have suggested that PDs may be more accurately described using a dimensional model instead of a categorical one. METHOD: Subjects from 9 French-speaking African countries (n = 2014) and from Switzerland (n = 697) completed both the French version of the International Personality Disorder Examination screening questionnaire, assessing the 10 DSM-IV PDs, and the French version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, assessing the 5 domains and 30 facets of the FFM. RESULTS: Correlations between PDs and the 5 domains of the FFM were similar in both samples. For example, neuroticism was highly correlated with borderline, avoidant, and dependent PDs in both Africa and Switzerland. The total rank-order correlation (rho) between the 2 correlation matrices was very high (rho = 0.93) and significant (P < 0.001), as were the rhos for all domains of the FFM and all PDs, except paranoid and dependent PDs. However, the rhos for PDs across facet scales were all highly significant (P < 0.001). Moreover, 80% of Widiger and colleagues' predictions and 70% of Lynam and Widiger's prototypes, concerning the relation between PDs and the FFM, were confirmed in both samples. CONCLUSIONS: The relation between PDs and the FFM was stable in 2 samples separated by a great cultural distance. These results suggest that a dimensional approach and in particular the FFM may be useful for describing PDs in various cultural settings.