Personality and symptoms of psychological ill health among adult male offenders

Abstract

The current study investigated the relationship between personality and symptoms of psychological ill health in adult male offenders. Male offenders (N = 161) housed at two medium-high-risk institutions completed the Ten Item Personality Inventory and the Symptom Checklist Outpatient Rating Scale. Emotional stability emerged as the strongest individual predictor of psychological ill health and predicted each of the subscales measured (somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, anger-hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism) and overall symptoms. Although agreeableness predicted depression and anger-hostility only, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience did not predict any aspect of psychological ill health investigated. The findings contribute to the current literature and provide further information about the relationship between personality and symptoms of psychological ill health in adult male offenders