Life Stories Matter: The Contribution of Narrative Identity to Personality Functioning and Functional Impairment

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Abstract
Introduction: Recent advances in psychiatric nosology replace categorical personality disorder diagnoses with dimensional frameworks characterized by level of personality functioning (LPF) and maladaptive traits. Increased emphasis on the assessment of self‐functioning with LPF has led scholars to advocate for the inclusion of narrative identity into these models. The current study aimed to examine the utility of narrative identity for the assessment of LPF, and as an aid alongside LPF in predicting a relevant clinical outcome—functional impairment. Methods: Life story narratives, alongside measures of LPF and functional impairment, were collected from 141 emerging adults (M age = 20.70, SD = 2.08) drawn from a mixed college and clinical sample with borderline personality disorder. Results: Maladaptive LPF was significantly associated with greater narrative deterioration and lower levels of agency, communion, and growth at the bivariate level. Regression analyzes revealed that narrative agency significantly predicted more adaptive self‐reported LPF, whereas narrative deterioration predicted more maladaptive interview‐rated LPF. Best subsets regression revealed that narrative deterioration, alongside self‐reported and interview‐rated LPF, explained the most variance in functional impairment with minimal model bias. Conclusion: Results highlight the utility of narrative identity for the assessment of LPF and as an aid to LPF in predicting functional impairment.

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