Personality traits in offspring of parents with unipolar affective disorder: An exploratory study

The adolescent offspring of parents with unipolar affective disorder (n = 46) were compared to the offspring of parents with chronic medical conditions (n = 33) and to offspring of normal controls (n = 38) on a questionnaire battery assessing a wide range of personality traits. Offspring of unipolars did not differ from offspring of parents with chronic medical conditions or offspring of normal parents on self-report measures of dependency, self- criticism, neuroticism, introversion, obsessionality, constraint, emotional expressiveness, affective intensity, and attributional style. Overall, these findings fail to support the role of personality as vulnerability markers for mood disorders in at-risk adolescents and young adults. However, some differences on self-report were found between subgroups of offspring.