Parental Personality Domains and Predicting the Effectiveness of Treatment for Nocturnal Enuresis

Date of Conferral

2015

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Marites Pinon

Abstract

Worldwide, millions of children 5 years of age and older suffer with nocturnal enuresis,

also known as nighttime bedwetting. Nocturnal enuresis is a chronic elimination disorder

that while usually benign, too often results in the child being emotionally and physically

abused. Efforts to design effective treatments with low relapse rates have thus far been

thwarted by the array of organic and psychosocial variables related to its development.

Guided by the 5-factor theory of personality, this cross-sectional study investigated

whether a parent's personality characteristics significantly predict effective treatment for

a child's nocturnal enuresis. Effective treatment was defined as having no relapses of

symptoms in the 6 months following initial treatment success. A convenience sample of

parents (n = 165) was recruited from the online social network Facebook and other online

educational and support forums for parents seeking information on enuresis. Participants

completed the NEO-FFI-3 to measure their personality characteristics, and logistic

regression analyses were used to determine if parental personality characteristics,

parental history of childhood enuresis, and/or the child's gender were significant

predictors of effective treatment for a child's enuresis. None of these factors were found

to significantly predict effective treatment for enuresis. This study promotes positive

social change by identifying the need for an integrated biopsychosocial approach to

treating children with enuresis with effective evidence-based treatments. These

treatments are expected to result in fewer children exposed to the high rates of abuse and

the development of psychosocial disorders often associated with nocturnal enuresis

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