Self-reported narrative identity in Norway: psychometric evaluation of the Awareness of Narrative Identity Questionnaire and the Narrative Identity Self-Evaluation scale with focus on personality pathology

BackgroundNarrative identity has traditionally been assessed with rater-based codings of life event narratives. Recently, the Awareness of Narrative Identity Questionnaire (ANIQ) and the Narrative Identity Self-Evaluation (NISE) were developed to assess central features of narrative identity via self-report. The goal of the study was to examine the internal consistency, structural validity, and criterion-related validity of the Norwegian ANIQ and NISE. Because prior work has specifically linked narrative identity disturbances to personality pathology, criterion validity was investigated in relation to personality functioning and pathological personality traits.MethodsAn adult sample (N = 330, Mage = 35.0 years, SDage = 14.2 years, 78.5% female) completed the ANIQ, NISE, Level of Personality Functioning Scale-Brief Form 2.0 (LPFS-BF 2.0), and Modified Personality Inventory for DSM-5, Brief Form Plus (PID5BF+M).ResultsThe results showed that the Norwegian ANIQ and NISE had high internal consistency. While confirmatory factor analyses yielded mixed results for both instruments, subsequent exploratory factor analyses supported the instruments' proposed structures. NISE narrative disturbances showed strong associations with impaired personality functioning and pathological personality traits.ConclusionIt is concluded that the Norwegian ANIQ and NISE show satisfactory reliability, structural validity, and theoretically coherent links to personality functioning and maladaptive personality traits, underscoring the relevance of narrative identity, especially narrative disturbances, for dimensional models of personality disorders.