Personality pathology profiles as moderators of the growing pro-social program: Outcomes on cognitive, emotion, and behavior regulation in male prison inmates

Abstract

This study consisted of secondary data analysis of information collected from inmates who had participated in an earlier independent randomized controlled trial testing the effects of the Growing Pro-Social (GPS) program. The current study assessed personality disorders as moderators of the GPS effects in cognitive malfunctioning, emotion regulation strategies, and prison misconduct in male prison inmates. Participants were 254 inmates randomly assigned to either the GPS (n = 121) or the control group (n = 133). Participants completed self-report measures at four time points, and were interviewed with the SCID-II at baseline. Prison misconduct information was collected from prison records. Latent profile analysis identified four different personality pathology profiles. Mixed ANOVAs showed non-significant time × condition × personality pathology profiles effects, indicating that change on the outcome measures was not affected by personality pathology. Findings suggested that severely disturbed inmates could benefit from the GPS program, which stresses the need to provide appropriate treatment to offenders.