The Relationship of Co-Dependency to Enduring Personality Characteristics

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article presents initial data on 358 college student subjects indicating preliminary empirical evidence that the construct of co-dependency is significantly related to self-defeating personality characteristics (as predicted by the authors) as well as borderline characteristics (as predicted by Cermak, 1986) but not to overt narcissistic traits (as predicted by the authors) or to dependent characteristics at the .01 level of significance. Post-hoc analyses found no gender or racial effects on the main variables. This conceptual analysis should help to inform the therapeutic treatment of co-dependency.