Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Sep-Oct;50(5):463-70.
doi: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2008.10.002. Epub 2009 Jan 16.

Factor structure and diagnostic efficiency of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, criteria for avoidant personality disorder in Hispanic men and women with substance use disorders

Daniel F Becker  1 , Luis Miguel Añez, Manuel Paris, Luis Bedregal, Carlos M Grilo
Affiliations

Factor structure and diagnostic efficiency of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, criteria for avoidant personality disorder in Hispanic men and women with substance use disorders

Daniel F Becker et al. Compr Psychiatry. 2009 Sep-Oct.

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the internal consistency, factor structure, and diagnostic efficiency of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), criteria for avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) and the extent to which these metrics may be affected by sex.

Method: Subjects were 130 monolingual Hispanic adults (90 men, 40 women) who had been admitted to a specialty clinic that provides psychiatric and substance abuse services to Spanish-speaking patients. All were reliably assessed with the Spanish-Language Version of the Diagnostic Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders. The AVPD diagnosis was determined by the best-estimate method. After evaluating internal consistency of the AVPD criterion set, an exploratory factor analysis was performed using principal components extraction. Afterward, diagnostic efficiency indices were calculated for all AVPD criteria. Subsequent analyses examined men and women separately.

Results: For the overall group, internal consistency of AVPD criteria was good. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a 1-factor solution (accounting for 70% of the variance), supporting the unidimensionality of the AVPD criterion set. The best inclusion criterion was "reluctance to take risks," whereas "interpersonally inhibited" was the best exclusion criterion and the best predictor overall. When men and women were examined separately, similar results were obtained for both internal consistency and factor structure, with slight variations noted between sexes in the patterning of diagnostic efficiency indices.

Conclusions: These psychometric findings, which were similar for men and women, support the construct validity of the DSM-IV criteria for AVPD and may also have implications for the treatment of this particular clinical population.

PubMed Disclaimer

MeSH terms