Disintegration predicts problem alcohol and drug use, quality of life, and experience in close relationships over the Big Five and HEXACO personality traits

Abstract

The Disintegration trait (i.e., proneness to psychotic-like experiences and behaviors) was recently proposed as the basic personality trait that supplements the space of individual differences framed by well-known Big Five and HEXACO models. In this research, we provided additional evidence of the unique contribution of Disintegration in predicting the individual differences in some outcomes whose relations with this trait are mainly unexplored. In the first study (N = 300), we employed a 20-item measure of Disintegration (DELTA-20), a short form of the Big Five Inventory (BFI-10), alcohol and drug use disorders identification tests (AUDIT, DUDIT), and Flanagan's Quality of Life Scale (QoLS). The results showed that Disintegration predicts higher levels of problem alcohol and drug use, and lower quality of life, over and above the Big Five traits, thus increasing the proportion of explained variance by 3% and 1%, respectively. In the second study (N = 537), we used a 10-item measure of Disintegration (DELTA-10), a 60-item form of HEXACO, and a Serbian version of the Modified and Revised Experiences in Close Relationship scale (SM-ECR-R). The results showed that Disintegration predicts higher levels of avoidance and anxiety in close relationships over and above HEXACO traits, with an incremental contribution in the explained variance of 2% and 11%, respectively. In sum, our findings suggested that the Disintegration trait, assessed by either the shorter or longer measure, accounts for unique variance in individual, wellbeing-related outcomes, and dyadic functioning-related outcomes. The limitations and future directions are discussed.