Facet-level personality development in the transition to adolescence: Maturity, disruption, and gender differences.

The transition to adolescence is marked by enormous change in social, biological, and personality development. Although accumulating evidence has offered insight into the nature of higher-order personality trait development during this period, much less is known about the development of lower-order personality traits, or "facets." The current study used a cohort-sequential longitudinal design to examine domain- and facet-level trajectories for mother-reported personality traits during the early adolescent transition. Personality trait domains and facets were assessed with the Inventory of Child Individual Differences-Short Form (Deal, Halverson, Martin, Victor, & Baker, 2007). Participants were 440 children followed at 4 annual timepoints from middle childhood (Mage = 9.97, SD = 0.81) to early adolescence (Mage = 13.11, SD = 0.84). Results of latent growth curve models showed substantial facet-level personality stability in this period, as well as small to moderate linear change in 13 of 15 facets. Gender differences in change were evident for 9 facets. Overall patterns suggested consistent increases in agreeableness facets with null to small gender differences. Neuroticism and openness to experience facet change was heterogeneous within each domain, but patterns were similar for boys and girls. Extraversion primarily decreased, though the magnitude and direction of change differed between facets and genders. Conscientiousness increased across all facets, but only among girls. These findings overall demonstrate a high degree of developmental consistency in facets within each domain as well as some notable differences. Further, this study contributes to a small and somewhat mixed evidence base for current theories of adolescent personality development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Depression in early adolescence: Contributions from relational aggression and variation in the oxytocin receptor gene.

Interpersonal stress arising from relational aggression (RA)-the intentional effort to harm others via rejection and exclusion-may increase risk for depression in youth. Biological vulnerabilities related to the hormone oxytocin, which affects social behavior and stress responses, may exacerbate this risk. In a community sample of 307 youth (52% female; age range = 10-14 years), we tested whether (1) the association between RA and subsequent depressive symptoms was mediated through social problems and (2) a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs53576) in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) moderated this indirect association between RA and depression, where GG homozygotes are predicted to be more sensitive to the effects of social problems than A-allele carriers. Youth-reported RA and depressive symptoms were measured using a structured interview and a questionnaire, respectively. DNA was extracted from saliva collected with Oragene kits. Consistent with the interpersonal theory of depression, the association between relational aggression and subsequent depressive symptoms was mediated by social problems. This indirect effect was further moderated by rs53576 genotype, such that GG homozygotes showed a stronger mediation effect than A-carriers. These results suggest that rs53576 variants confer vulnerability for depression within the context of interpersonal risk factors, such that youth with the GG genotype may be particularly sensitive to the social consequences resulting from RA.

The impact of underreporting and overreporting on the validity of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5): A simulation analog design investigation.

The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) is a 220-item self-report instrument that assesses the alternative model of personality psychopathology in Section III (Emerging Measures and Models) of DSM-5. Despite its relatively recent introduction, the PID-5 has generated an impressive accumulation of studies examining its psychometric properties, and the instrument is also already widely and frequently used in research studies. Although the PID-5 is psychometrically sound overall, reviews of this instrument express concern that this scale does not possess validity scales to detect invalidating levels of response bias, such as underreporting and overreporting. McGee Ng et al. (2016), using a "known-groups" (partial) criterion design, demonstrated that both underreporting and overreporting grossly affect mean scores on PID-5 scales. In the current investigation, we replicate these findings using an analog simulation design. An important extension to this replication study was the finding that the construct validity of the PID-5 was also significantly compromised by response bias, with statistically significant attenuation noted in validity coefficients of the PID-5 domain scales with scales from other instruments measuring congruent constructs. This attenuation was found for underreporting and overreporting bias. We believe there is a need to develop validity scales to screen for data-distorting response bias in research contexts and in clinical assessments where response bias is likely or otherwise suspected. (PsycINFO Database Record

Stress generation in adolescence: Contributions from five-factor model (FFM) personality traits and childhood maltreatment.

Youth with depression are theorized to generate stress in their lives because of a complex interaction between their personal characteristics and their chronic environmental context. Using a moderated regression approach, we provided a novel test of this hypothesis by examining whether adolescent 5-factor model personality traits moderate the associations between early emotional, physical, and sexual maltreatment and life events experienced in the past 6 months. Participants in this cross-sectional study were 110 adolescents (M = 16.24, SD = 1.53, age range = 13-17, 74.5% female) with major depressive disorder. The relation of physical maltreatment to dependent interpersonal life events was moderated by extraversion. Among physically maltreated youth, dependent interpersonal events were positively associated with extraversion. Further, the relation of sexual maltreatment to independent events were moderated by extraversion and agreeableness. Among sexually maltreated youth, independent events were negatively associated with extraversion and positively associated with agreeableness. The observed vulnerability-risk interactions are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the role of stress generation mechanisms in an integrated model of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record

Parent and Adolescent Agreement for Reports of Life Stressors.

In this article, we investigated the extent and nature of informant discrepancies on parent- and adolescent self-report versions of a checklist measuring youth exposure to life stressors. Specifically, we examined (a) mean-level differences, relative consistency, and consensus for family-level and youth-specific stressors and (b) the utility of parent-youth discrepancies in accounting for variance in youth temperament and psychopathology. Participants were 106 parent-child dyads (47 male, 59 female; 90.6% mothers) aged 13 to 18 years old ( M = 16.01, SD = 1.29). The results revealed evidence for both congruence and divergence in parent and youth reports, particularly with respect to respondents' accounts of youth-specific stressors. Discrepancies for youth-specific stressors were associated with adolescents' negative affectivity, surgency, effortful control, and internalizing problems. Discrepancies for youth stressors may therefore reveal individual differences in emotionality and self-regulation, thus reflecting meaningful variance in adolescents' functioning.

Therapeutic alliance mediates the association between personality and treatment outcome in patients with major depressive disorder.

BACKGROUND: Patient personality traits have been shown to influence treatment outcome in those with major depressive disorder (MDD). The trait agreeableness, which reflects an interpersonal orientation, may affect treatment outcome via its role in the formation of therapeutic alliance. No published studies have tested this hypothesis in patients with MDD. METHOD: Participants were 209 outpatients with MDD who were treated in a randomized control trial. Mediation analyses were conducted to examine the role of therapeutic alliance in the association between pretreatment personality and the reduction of depression symptom severity during treatment. Separate models were estimated for patient- versus therapist-rated therapeutic alliance. RESULTS: We found a significant indirect effect of agreeableness on the reduction of depression severity via patient-rated therapeutic alliance. Results were replicated across two well-validated measures of depression symptom severity. Results also partially supported indirect effects for extraversion and openness. Therapist ratings of alliance did not mediate the association between personality and treatment outcomes. LIMITATIONS: Patients were recruited as part of a randomized control trial, which may limit the generalizability of results to practice-based clinical settings. Due to constraints on statistical power, intervention-specific mediation results were not examined. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the importance of personality and the role it plays in treatment process as well as outcome.

Thin slices of child personality: Perceptual, situational, and behavioral contributions.

The present study examined whether thin-slice ratings of child personality serve as a resource-efficient and theoretically valid measurement of child personality traits. We extended theoretical work on the observability, perceptual accuracy, and situational consistency of childhood personality traits by examining intersource and interjudge agreement, cross-situational consistency, and convergent, divergent, and predictive validity of thin-slice ratings. Forty-five unacquainted independent coders rated 326 children's (ages 8-12) personality in 1 of 15 thin-slice behavioral scenarios (i.e., 3 raters per slice, for over 14,000 independent thin-slice ratings). Mothers, fathers, and children rated children's personality, psychopathology, and competence. We found robust evidence for correlations between thin-slice and mother/father ratings of child personality, within- and across-task consistency of thin-slice ratings, and convergent and divergent validity with psychopathology and competence. Surprisingly, thin-slice ratings were more consistent across situations in this child sample than previously found for adults. Taken together, these results suggest that thin slices are a valid and reliable measure to assess child personality, offering a useful method of measurement beyond questionnaires, helping to address novel questions of personality perception and consistency in childhood.

A Review of the Direct and Interactive Effects of Life Stressors and Dispositional Traits on Youth Psychopathology.

Stressors and dispositional traits have been implicated in youth psychopathology; however, the direct effects from stressors or traits alone may be insufficient for explaining maladaptive development. Evidence for the impact of stressors and dispositional traits has largely progressed within separate lines of inquiry, resulting in disunited etiological models and variable empirical support. Existing research on the concurrent effects of stressors and traits has also been hindered by several conceptual issues-including mixed evidence for specificity effects, inconsistent operationalization of stressors, and inadequate coverage of dispositional traits across development-making it difficult to draw conclusions across studies. The current review aims to unify these independent lines of inquiry by evaluating prior research according to three theoretical frameworks: (1) additive, (2) diathesis-stress, and (3) social push models. Implications for assessment, prevention, and intervention efforts in clinical child and adolescent psychopathology are discussed.

Viewing relational aggression through multiple lenses: temperament, personality, and personality pathology.

Dispositional trait frameworks offer great potential to elucidate the nature and development of psychopathology, including the construct of relational aggression. The present study sought to explore the dispositional context of relational aggression across three dispositional frameworks: temperament, personality, and personality pathology. Participants comprised a large community sample of youth, aged 6 to 18 years (N = 1,188; 51.2% female). Ratings of children's relational aggression, temperament, personality, and personality pathology traits were obtained through parent report (86.3% mothers). Results showed convergence and divergence across these three dispositional frameworks. Like other antisocial behavior subtypes, relational aggression generally showed connections with traits reflecting negative emotionality and poor self-regulation. Relational aggression showed stronger connections with temperament traits than with personality traits, suggesting that temperament frameworks may capture more relationally aggressive content. Findings at the lower order trait level help differentiate relational aggression from other externalizing problems by providing a more nuanced perspective (e.g., both sociability and shyness positively predicted relational aggression). In addition, there was little evidence of moderation of these associations by gender, age, or age2, and findings remained robust even after controlling for physical aggression. Results are discussed in the broader context of conceptualizing relational aggression in an overarching personality-psychopathology framework.

Alexithymia and adult attachment representations: associations with the five-factor model of personality and perceived relationship adjustment.

Several studies have demonstrated associations between alexithymia, adult attachment styles, personality traits, and relationship adjustment. Only two studies, however, have explored associations between alexithymia and attachment representations. As part of a larger investigation of maternal and infant attachment, the current study explored this association in a sample of 97 pregnant women; in addition, measures of alexithymia and domains of the five-factor model (FFM) of personality were compared in predicting attachment security, assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview Coherence of Mind mind scale, and perceived relationship adjustment. Alexithymia negatively predicted coherence of mind; the domains of the FFM did not add significantly to the prediction. The Openness-to-Experience domain predicted relationship adjustment better than alexithymia. Contrary to findings from studies that assessed adult attachment styles, coherence of mind was unrelated to relationship adjustment and the FFM. The results suggest that alexithymia does not uniquely predict relationship adjustment beyond the domains of the FFM.

Hormones: empirical contribution. Cortisol reactivity and recovery in the context of adolescent personality disorder.

The present study examined whether the associations between stress responses and psychopathology were moderated by adolescent personality disorder (PD) traits. Participants were a community sample of 106 adolescents (47 male, Mage = 16.01) and their parents. Parents reported on adolescents' PD traits and behavioral problems. Changes in salivary cortisol were assessed in response to a laboratory-based stress induction. Moderated regression analyses revealed significant linear and quadratic interactions between cortisol recovery and PD traits in the prediction of behavioral problems. Although typically conceptualized as "adaptive," steeper poststressor recovery was associated with more behavioral problems when PD traits were high. These findings suggest that, in the presence of maladaptive personality traits, premature recovery from environmental stressors may indicate an inability to respond appropriately to negative environmental stimuli, thus reflecting a core disturbance in PD trait functioning. The results underscore the informative role that personality plays in illuminating the nature of hormone functioning in adolescents and are interpreted in a developmental psychopathology framework.

Delineating personality traits in childhood and adolescence: associations across measures, temperament, and behavioral problems.

The current investigation addressed several questions in the burgeoning area of child personality assessment. Specifically, the present study examined overlapping and nonoverlapping variance in two prominent measures of child personality assessment, followed by tests of convergent and divergent validity with child temperament and psychopathology. Informant report (72.1% mother) was obtained for a community sample of 803 youth (M age = 11.34 years; 51.6% female). The results revealed strong convergence between two empirically based measures of child personality traits, although some discrepancies were noted. The results from analyses predicting temperament and psychopathology were complex, suggesting that higher order child personality traits account for both shared and unique variance in these constructs, relative to one another. Overall, the current investigation provides a multifaceted contribution to evidence for construct validity of child personality traits and highlights the need for subsequent research in this area.

The joint hierarchical structure of adolescent personality pathology: converging evidence from two approaches to measurement.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the joint hierarchical structure of two measures of adolescent personality pathology within a community sample of Canadian adolescents. METHOD: Self-reported data on demographic information and pathological personality traits were obtained from 144 youth (M age = 16.08 years, SD = 1.30). Personality pathology was measured using the youth-version of the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP-Y; Linde, Stringer, Simms, & Clark, in press) and the Dimensional Personality Symptom Item Pool (DIPSI; De Clercq, De Fruyt, Van Leeuwen, & Mervielde, 2006). Lower-order scales were subjected to structural hierarchical analyses. RESULTS: Scales from the two measures were complementary in defining higher-order traits. Traits at the 4-factor level of the hierarchy (Need for Approval, Disagreeableness, Detachment, and Compulsivity) showed similarities and differences with previous results in adults. CONCLUSIONS: The current investigation integrated top-down and bottom-up measures for a comprehensive account of the higher-order hierarchy of adolescent personality pathology. Results are discussed in the context of convergence across approaches and in comparison with previous findings in adult samples.

OBJECTIF: Examiner la structure hiérarchique conjointe de deux mesures de la pathologie de la personnalité adolescente dans un échantillon communautaire d'adolescents canadiens. MÉTHODE: Des données autoévaluées sur l'information démographique et les traits de personnalité pathologique ont été obtenues de 144 adolescents (Mâge = 16,08 ans, ET = 1,30). La pathologie de la personnalité a été mesurée à l'aide de la version pour adolescents de la Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (SNAP-Y; Linde, Stringer, Simms, et Clark, 2012) et du Dimensional Personality Symptom Item Pool (DIPSI; De Clercq, De Fruyt, Van Leeuwen, et Mervielde, 2006). Des échelles d'ordre inférieur ont fait l'objet d'analyses structurelles hiérarchiques. RÉSULTATS: Les échelles des deux mesures étaient complémentaires pour définir les traits d'ordre supérieur. Les traits au niveau des quatre facteurs de la hiérarchie (détachement, désobligeance, besoin d'approbation, et compulsivité) montraient des ressemblances et des différences relativement aux résultats précédents chez les adultes. CONCLUSIONS: La présente recherche intégrait des mesures descendantes et ascendantes pour un compte rendu complet de la hiérarchie d'ordre supérieur de la pathologie de la personnalité adolescente. Les résultats sont présentés dans le contexte de la convergence entre les approches et en comparaison avec les résultats précédents d'échantillons adultes.

The hierarchical structure of the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology (DAPP-BQ).

Hierarchical personality models have the potential to identify common and specific components of DSM-IV personality disorders (PDs), and may offer a solution for the re-tooling of personality pathology in future versions of the DSM. In this paper, we examined the hierarchical structure of the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ; Livesley & Jackson, 2009) and the capacity of various trait components at different levels to predict DSM-IV PD symptoms. Participants were 275 psychiatric outpatients and 365 undergraduate students. Goldberg's (2006) bass-ackwards method was used to investigate the hierarchical structure of the DAPP-BQ. The predictive capacity of hierarchy components was assessed. We found that Level 5 of the hierarchy enhanced the capacity of the DAPP-BQ for predicting DSM PD symptoms beyond a four-factor structure, particularly for borderline PD.

A comparison of depressed patients in randomized versus nonrandomized trials of antidepressant medication and psychotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Clinicians and researchers have questioned whether participants in randomized control trials (RCTs) are representative of patients in the broader clinical population. METHOD: We compared the demographic, clinical, and personality characteristics of patients (N=256) with major depressive disorder (MDD) receiving antidepressant medication or interpersonal therapy as part of an RCT investigation (n=105) versus in a clinic (n=151). The RCT and clinic protocols were identical with the exception of recruitment procedures (advertisement versus physician referral) and assignment to treatment (randomized versus nonrandomized). RESULTS: No significant differences emerged between the RCT participants and clinic patients for sex, age, marital status, and education. Overall, clinic patients were no more severely depressed compared to RCT participants; there was, however, a significant interaction effect. Response rates were significantly higher for RCT participants versus clinic patients. Those participating in the RCT scored significantly higher on a personality scale assessing preference for novel experiences compared to those in the clinic. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in clinical and personality variables between those receiving treatment for MDD as part of an RCT versus in a clinic exist; however, the clinical significance of these differences remains in question, as these variables were unrelated to treatment outcome.