Perception of early parenting by patients diagnosed avoidant personality disorder: a test of the overprotection hypothesis.

The perceptions of their parents by patients diagnosed avoidant personality disorder (DSM-III) and matched normal subjects were compared. The overprotection hypothesis proposed by Parker was not found to predict the perceptions of patients diagnosed avoidant personality disorder. Social introversion in patients was found to be related to perceptions of their parents as shaming, guilt-engendering and intolerant.