Personality Disorders Among Alexandria University Students

Abstract

PDs represent a common and serious public health problem. Not only can they be detrimental to individuals' personal and occupational life, PDs underlie the susceptibility to many psychiatric and medical health problems and invariably produce a worse outcome. They also constitute a major source of burden to the family, society at large, and various health services.

The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of different PDs J among first grade students of the University of Alexandria and to investigate some ecological factors of the problem. Specific objectives included developing an Arabic version of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+) and testing its psychometric properties, assessing the different personality disorders of first year students of Alexandria University, and identifying the different personal, academic, familial, and medical variables associated with personality disorders.

A cross-sectional analytic study design was used where 5% of the total number of students in the first grade in the University of Alexandria was included. A two­ staged stratified sampling procedure with proportional allocation was conducted. Stratification was based on type of college (theoretical and practical), and gender. Total participants amounted to 1100 students, 443 males and 657 females.