Date of Award

August 2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Heather Terrell

Second Advisor

Joseph Miller

Abstract

Theodore Millon (2011) proposed that specific developmental experiences and childhood adversities contribute to personality pathology, although these hypotheses have received limited empirical investigation. Participants (N = 490) completed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-IV (MCMI-IV) and self-report measures of childhood adversity. Hierarchical ordinal regression analyses examined whether childhood adversities predicted elevations across MCMI-IV personality scales after controlling for age, gender, and co-occurring abuse. Although neglect was the primary focus of the study, childhood physical and emotional abuse emerged as the most consistent predictors across models. Both forms of abuse significantly predicted elevated masochistic, borderline, and schizotypal personality scores. Emotional abuse uniquely predicted avoidant and melancholic personality scores, whereas physical abuse uniquely predicted schizoid, antisocial, and paranoid personality scores. Physical abuse demonstrated the strongest associations overall, particularly for schizotypal (OR = 2.40), antisocial (OR = 2.20), and paranoid (OR = 2.10) personality scales. An unexpected finding was that emotional abuse was associated with lower odds of membership in increasingly severe compulsive personality scores (OR = 0.51). Additionally, other forms of adversity did not add predictive value for any scales after accounting for physical and emotional abuse. These results highlight the complexity of personality research and potential limitations of statistical analysis. In future research, ordinal structural equation modeling (SEM) would allow for investigation of mediating or moderating variables while addressing limitations of ordinal regression.

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