Relationship between personality traits and cooperation of adolescent orthodontic patients

Abstract

Objective: To establish the relationship between the personality traits of the adolescent and his or her cooperation with the orthodontic treatment.

Materials and methods: From a sample of 70 adolescent orthodontic patients (46 girls and 24 boys) between 12 and 15 years of age (average age, 13.4 +/- 1.1 years), the patients' personality traits were evaluated by using a personality questionnaire (16 Personality Factors-Adolescent Personal Questionnaire) and the degree of patient cooperation was assessed through the cooperation test (Orthodontic Patient Cooperation Scale [OPCS]). The cutting point for the assessment of cooperation on the OPCS questionnaire (noncooperation vs cooperation) was carried out through the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of curves. A chi2 test with Yates correction (P < or = .05) was applied to evaluate the associations between the degree of cooperation and the scales of personality, gender, or age.

Results: The cutting point for cooperation as assessed by the OPCS by means of ROC analysis was 380. No statistically significant relations were found between the degree of cooperation and the scales of personality, gender, or age.

Conclusions: The results of the current study indicate that the personality traits alone of adolescents do not predict cooperation during treatment.