Association of Temperament, Family Environment and Personality Traits with the Symptoms of Depression and Substance Abuse Disorder: An Exploratory Research

Abstract

Depression and Substance Abuse Disorder though being a very serious psychological illness yet are very commonly being experienced in the present scenario. There is a significant relationship between depression/substance abuse disorder and psycho-social factors. Aim of the present study is to see the association of temperament, family environment and personality traits with the symptoms of Depression and Substance Abuse Disorder patients. The researchers have tried their best to figure out the factors that are responsible for experiencing depression or substance abuse disorder. Significance of the study: The present study is done with the purpose of finding the relationship between factors like Temperament, Family Environment and Personality Traits and psychiatric symptoms being experienced by depressive patients and substance abuse disorder patients and pointing out which factor plays a significant role in maintaining symptoms of depression and substance abuse disorder. Sample: Sample of 200 clinically diagnosed patients was taken from JNMC, AMU and Shantiratn Foundation, Delhi in which 100 were depressive disorder patients and 100 were substance abuse disorder patients. Purposive sampling method was used for the sample selection. Tools: Tools used for the present study are Becks Depression Inventory, The Severity Dependence Scale, Family Environment Scale, NEO Five Factor Inventory, and Dimension of Temperament Scale. The statistical analyses were done with the help of Statistical Package for Social Science-20 (SPSS-20). For analyses of data raw score was converted to standard score then mean and standard deviation were calculated. Result: For Depression patients: The patient scored low mean on dimension sociability, secretiveness, reflective, vigorous, cooperative, warmth, aggressive, tolerance. The patients scored high mean on domain Neuroticism. The patients had Conflict Oriented family profile according to the patient’s perception. For Substance Abuse disorder patients: The patients scored low mean on dimension vigorous, warmth, tolerance. The patient scored high mean on domain Neuroticism. According to the patient’s perception regarding their family environment, the family had a Conflict Oriented family. Conclusion: After sufficient analysis and an in depth study followed by necessary interpretation of the results obtained regarding the underlying variables it can be successfully concluded that the variables (Temperament, Family environment and Personality traits) and the psychiatric symptoms of depression and substance abuse disorder are interlinked/associated with each other.