Investigating the Relationship Between Kerenberg's Personality Organization and Objective Relations in the Addiction Tendency of Secondary High School Students in Urmia City, Iran

Soleymanpour , Mohhamad; Pakdel, Hadi

Volume 15 - Articles-1404 MEJDS (2025) 15: 108 | Back to browse issues page

Ethics code: IR.IAU.URMIA. REC1402.104

Mendeley

Zotero

RefWorks

Soleymanpour M, Pakdel H. Investigating the Relationship Between Kerenberg's Personality Organization and Objective Relations in the Addiction Tendency of Secondary High School Students in Urmia City, Iran. MEJDS 2025; 15 (0) :108-108
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-3645-en.html

Investigating the Relationship Between Kerenberg's Personality Organization and Objective Relations in the Addiction Tendency of Secondary High School Students in Urmia City, Iran

Mohhamad Soleymanpour¹

, Hadi Pakdel ^*²

1- MA in Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, Urmia Branch, Islamic Azad University, Urmia, Iran
2- Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, School of Human Science, Afagh Higher Education Institute, Urmia, Iran & Department of Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, Urmia Branch, Islamic Azad University, Urmia, Iran

Abstract: (151 Views)

Abstract
Background & Objectives: Addiction tendency represents a persistent psychological urge to use substances as a response to internal compulsion, which gradually deteriorates both physical and psychological functioning. Adolescence is a developmental stage characterized by emotional instability, identity formation, and heightened vulnerability to peer influence and risky behaviors. During this period, internal psychological structures play a crucial role in determining whether a young person adopts adaptive coping mechanisms or turns toward maladaptive ones, such as substance use. Given that the inclination toward addiction emerges from the interaction of biological, social, and intrapsychic factors, psychoanalytic constructs, such as Kernberg’s personality organization and object relations provide a rich theoretical framework to understand these mechanisms. Despite the theoretical relevance of these constructs, empirical studies integrating Kernberg’s model of personality organization with object relations in predicting addiction tendency—particularly among adolescents—remain scarce in the Iranian context. Thus, the present research was designed to investigate the relationship between Kernberg’s personality organization, object relations, and addiction tendency among male high school students in Urmia City, Iran.
Methods: The research method was a correlational analysis. The statistical population included all male students enrolled in the second level of secondary schools in District 1 of Urmia City during the 2023–2024 academic year. A multi–stage cluster random sampling method was applied, and a total of 215 students were selected. The inclusion criteria were as follows: willingness to cooperate and participate in the study voluntarily, being a student in the second year of high school, being at least 16 years old and no more than 19 years old, and obtaining a score of more than 38 on the Addiction Tendency Questionnaire (ATQ) (Zargar, 2006). The exclusion criteria were as follows: incomplete filling out the questionnaires and failure to cooperate in the research process. Data were gathered using standardized psychometric instruments: the Personality Organization Inventory (Kernberg, 2002), Bell Object Relations and Reality Testing Inventory (BORRTI) (Bell, 1995), and the Addiction Tendency Questionnaire (Zargar, 2006). Ethical considerations for the research included ensuring the confidentiality of information obtained from students, stating the research objectives, and the participants' right to withdraw. Research data were analyzed using descriptive (frequency, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis) in SPSS software version 21. A significance level of 0.05 was considered.
Results: A total of 215 male students participated in the study. The mean age of the male students was 16.19 years and the standard deviation was 0.54 years. In this study, 45 students were in the 10^th grade, 130 students in the 11^th grade, and 40 students in the 12^th grade. The results of the Pearson correlation coefficient indicated a positive and significant relationship between the variables of object relations and adolescents’ addiction tendency (r=0.31) and between the Kernberg’s personality organization and adolescents’ addiction tendency (r=0.28) (p<0.001). The findings of the regression analysis showed that in total, the two variables of object relations and Kernberg’s personality organization explained 31% and 28% of the variance of adolescents’ addiction tendency, respectively (p<0.001).
Conclusion: According to the study results, two factors, Kernberg's personality organization and object relations, play an important role in the tendency towards addiction in adolescents, and early intervention in these factors can prevent addiction.

Keywords: Kernberg’s personality organization, Object relations, Addiction tendency, Student

Full-Text [PDF 286 kb] (15 Downloads)

Type of Study: Original Research Article | Subject: Psychology

References

1. Saxena P, Grella CE, Messina NP. Continuing care and trauma in women offenders’ substance use, psychiatric status, and self-efficacy outcomes. Women Crim Justice. 2016;26(2):99–121. [DOI]

2. Bliuc A, Doan T, Best D. Sober social networks: the role of online support groups in recovery from alcohol addiction. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology. 2019;29(2):121–32. [DOI]

3. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Rezaei F. (Persian translator). Tehran: Arjmand Pub; 2022. [Persian]

4. Simatwa EM, Odhong SO, Juma SL, Choka GM. Substance abuse among public secondary school students: prevalence, strategies and challenges for public secondary school managers in Kenya: a case study of Kisumu East Sub County. Educational Research. 2014;5:315–30.

5. Davison GC, Neale JM. Abnormal psychology. 8th edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc; 2001.

6. Caligor E, Kernberg OF, Clarkin JF. Handbook of dynamic psychotherapy for higher level personality pathology. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2007.

7. Sweet AD. Aspects of internal self and object representations in disorganized attachment: clinical considerations in the assessment and treatment of chronic and relapsing substance misusers. British Journal of Psychotherapy. 2013;29(2):154–67. [DOI]

8. Kernberg OF. Borderline (patient) personality. In: Wright JD; editor. International Encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences. Elsevier; 2015. [DOI]

9. Lewis SJ, Koenen KC, Ambler A, Arseneault L, Caspi A, Fisher HL, et al. Unravelling the contribution of complex trauma to psychopathology and cognitive deficits: a cohort study. Br J Psychiatry. 2021;219(2):448–55. [DOI]

10. Summers F. Object relations theories and psychopathology. Routledge; 2014. [DOI]

11. Graziano V, Trogal K. The politics of collective repair: examining object-relations in a postwork society. Cultural Studies. 2017;31(5):634–58. [DOI]

12. Krystal H. Self-and object-representation in alcoholism and other drug-dependence: implications for therapy. NIDA Res Monogr. 1977;(12):88–100.

13. Ahmadi F, Sarafraz MR, Kazemi Rezaei A. The diagnostic role of object relations and defensive mechanisms in patients with opioid abuse, stimulant users and normal individuals. Etiadpajohi. 2020;14(55):169–92. [Persian] [DOI]

14. Caligor E, Preti E, Stern BL, Sowislo JF, Clarkin JF. Object relations theory model of personality disorders. Am J Psychother. 2023;76(1):26–30. [DOI]

15. Uhl GR, Koob GF, Cable J. The neurobiology of addiction. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2019;1451(1):5–28. [DOI]

16. Arzpeyma M, Hamzehpoor Haghighi T. Comparison of object relations, personality organization, and personal and relational meaning of life in psychology graduates vs other students in Lahijan Azad University. Practice in Clinical Psychology. 2023;11(4):349–58. [DOI]

17. Svrakic DM, Zorumski CF. Neuroscience of object relations in health and disorder: a proposal for an integrative model. Front Psychol. 2021;12:583743. [DOI]

18. Rutherford MJ, McKay JR, Alterman AI, Cacciola JS, Cook TG. The relationship of object relations and reality testing deficits to outcome status of methadone maintenance patients. Compr Psychiatry. 1996;37(5):347–54. [DOI]

19. Zargar Y. Psychological factors affecting tendency toward addiction. Quarterly Journal of Psychological Research. 2006;9(3):37–54.

20. Kernberg OF. Ideology, conflict, and leadership in groups and organizations. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press; 2002.

21. Bell MD. Bell Object Relations and Reality Testing Inventory (BORRTI) Manual. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services; 1995.

22. Kernberg OF, Clarkin JF. The Inventory of Personality Organization. New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center; 1995. [DOI]

23. Lenzenweger MF, Clarkin JF, Kernberg OF, Foelsch PA. The Inventory of Personality Organization: psychometric properties, factorial composition, and criterion relations with affect, aggressive dyscontrol, psychosis proneness, and self-domains in a nonclinical sample. Psychol Assess. 2001;13(4):577–91.

24. Ale Behbahani M, Mohammadi N. Examining the psychometric properties of Kernberg Personality Organization. Journal of Psychology. 2007;11(2):185–97. [Persian]

25. Bell M, Billington R, Becker B. A scale for the assessment of object relations: Reliability, validity, and factorial invariance. J Clin Psychol. 1986;42(5):733–41. [DOI]

26. Hadinezhad H, Tabatabaeian M, Dehghani M. A preliminary study for validity and reliability of Bell Object Relations and Reality Testing Inventory. Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology. 2014;20(2):162–9. [Persian] [Article]

27. Zargar Y, Najarian B, Neami AZ. The relationship of some personality variables, religious attitudes and marital satisfaction with addiction potential in personnel of an industrial factory in Ahvaz. Journal of Education and Psychology. 2008;15(1):99–120. [Persian]