Type D personality, temperament, and mental health in military personnel awaiting deployment.
BACKGROUND
The Type D (distressed) personality refers to a general propensity to psychological distress defined by the combination of negative affectivity and social inhibition. Type D personality predicts poor mental and physical health in cardiac patients, but it has been argued that its assessment is affected by the state of illness. Therefore, validation of the Type D construct in healthy adults remains essential.


OBJECTIVE
The objectives of this study were (1) to validate Type D personality against temperament and character dimensions in young, healthy adults and (2) to investigate the association between Type D personality and pre-deployment mental health.


METHODS
Type D personality, temperament, and questionnaires on mental health were filled out by 86 healthy male Dutch military personnel before UN deployment to Afghanistan.


RESULTS
Type D personality was present in 16% of healthy military personnel before deployment. The Type D components social inhibition (α = 0.89) and negative affectivity (α = 0.85) correlated positively with harm avoidant temperament (r = 0.66 and 0.46) and negatively with self-directed character (r = -0.33 and -0.57). In addition, these four traits loaded on the same broad personality dimension. Military men with a Type D personality not only reported significantly less self-directedness and more harm avoidance as compared to non-Type D men (p < 0.001) but also more symptoms of PTSD, general emotional distress, and hostility (all p < 0.012).


CONCLUSIONS
Type D personality was associated with harm avoidance, low self-directedness, and increased symptoms of PTSD and hostility in men awaiting deployment. This association was not caused by any somatic confounding in these young, healthy men.
Mommersteeg
Paula M C
PM
CoRPS, Center of Research on Psychology in Somatic diseases, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands. P.M.C.Mommersteeg@uvt.nl
Denollet
Johan
J
Kavelaars
Annemieke
A
Geuze
Elbert
E
Vermetten
Eric
E
Heijnen
Cobi J
CJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D055826:Afghan Campaign 2001-; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D009426:Netherlands; D010551:Personality; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
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