Relationship between religiosity domains and traits from borderline and schizotypal personality disorders in a Brazilian community sample

Abstract

Introduction: Research suggests that religiosity domains are associated with mental health constructs. Some studies have focused on the relationship between religiosity and personality disorders. Objective: To investigate the relationship between religiosity domains and pathological traits of the borderline (BPD) and schizotypal (SZPD) personality disorders. Methods: Participants were 751 adults from the general population who answered the Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (MI-RSWB-E), the Attachment to God Inventory (AGI), and factors of the Dimensional Clinical Personality Inventory 2 (IDCP-2). Pearson's correlation and regression analysis were conducted with pathological traits as independent variables and religiosity domains as dependent variables. Results: Correlation and regression analyses indicated slightly higher associations between religiosity domain and BPD traits in comparison to SZPD traits. BPD traits showed higher associations with the hope immanent, forgiveness and hope transcendent domains, while SZPD presented higher associations with connectedness. The SZPD-related paranormality factor presented the highest correlation observed in the study and was the best SZPD predictor of religiosity domains. The BPD-related hopelessness factor was the predictor with significant contribution to most regression models. BPD traits presented slightly higher average association with religiosity domains, whereas spiritual-related domains (e.g., connectedness) tended to show higher associations with SZPD traits. Conclusions: Our findings help explain the relationship between specific pathological traits and religiosity domains.