Personality characteristics of adults with nonverbal learning disability subtypes

Abstract

The present study examined whether individuals with poor math ability possess more atypical personality characteristics than individuals with average or good math abilities. Individuals with nonverbal learning disability syndrome (NLD) have been found to have difficulties with mechanical arithmetic and psychosocial functioning, and it was hypothesized that the individuals in the poor math group in this study would be analogous to individuals with NLD with respect to psychosocial functioning. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - 2 (MMPI-2) was used to assess the personality characteristics o f 48 undergraduate university students (31 females and 17 males), assessed as having poor, average and good math ability based on their performance on the Wide Range Achievement Test - 3 (WRAT-3). The hypothesis that the individuals with poor math abilities would resemble individuals with NLD in their social-emotional deficits was not upheld, as the individuals in the poor math group did not display any more significant elevations on the Clinical nor Content Scales of the MMPI-2 than did the individuals in the other math ability groups. These findings suggest that the deficits of NLD do not run along a continuum of mathematical ability, and that the poor math group in this study was not simply displaying attenuated forms of the deficits seen in NLD individuals.