Self-Reported Personality Functioning in Patients With Substance Use Disorders: Similarities and Specifics With Respect to the Czech Community Sample.

OBJECTIVE

Information about the level of general personality functioning could provide benefits for tailoring substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. This study examined self-reported personality functioning among patients with SUD compared to the general population, gender specifics, and the psychometric properties of the Czech Level of Personality Functioning Scale-Self Report (LPFS-SR).

METHODS

Two samples were used in this study. Sample 1 (n = 368) consisted of patients with SUD, while Sample 2 (n = 497) comprised volunteers from the general population. All participants, with an age range of 18-75 years, completed a battery of self-assessment tools, including a demographic form, the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5), and the LPFS-SR, administered via a pencil-and-paper method. Internal consistency and several aspects of the validity of the Czech LPFS-SR were examined.

RESULTS

The LPFS-SR showed high internal consistency as estimated by Cronbach's alpha (α ≥ 0.66) and the high mutual correlation with the PID-5 varied from 0.21 to 0.77. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the four LPFS-SR subscales indicated a single-component structure, accounting for 78.21% of the variance in Sample 1 and 79.20% in Sample 2, supporting previous results regarding the LPFS-SR factorial structure. Furthermore, gender-specific cut-off scores were obtained and are discussed in relation to previous research.

CONCLUSION

The findings indicate that the Czech LPFS-SR is a valid and reliable tool with acceptable discriminating capacity. It can be used in research and clinical assessments of personality functioning in patients with SUD, particularly when considering gender-specific characteristics.