The authors examine the prevalence, the relationship to alcoholism, and the childhood antecedents of specific DSM-III personality disorders in a longitudinally followed community sample of middle-aged men. Dependent personality disorders (10% of sample) and passive-aggressive personality disorders (8% of sample) were the most common diagnoses and overlapped extensively with other Axis II diagnoses. Comorbidity with alcoholism was extensive, particularly for the “dramatic, emotional, erratic” cluster of personality disorders. When alcoholics were removed from the sample, childhood measures of constitution (low IQ and poor health) and behavior (poor task competence and emotional problems) proved moderately strong predictors of specific personality disorders over 30 years later. On the other hand, measures of childhood environment (low social class and environmental weaknesses) were generally poor predictors of specific personality disorders.
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Drake et al. (1988) studied this question.