Cluster A Personality Symptomatology in Youth

Abstract

There is an increasing recognition of the importance of studying the childhood antecedents of adult personality disorders as well as personality disorders themselves within childhood and adolescence. This has been a long neglected area of research. The two papers within this special issue of Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment by Esterberg et al. (2010) and De Clercq et al. (2010) make significant strides toward addressing this delinquent focus of investigation. This commentary addresses three issues stimulated by these two particular studies: the distinction between personality and other mental disorders, dimensional models of classification, and openness to experience.

The 5-Dimensional Personality Test (5DPT): Relationships With Two Lexically Based Instruments and the Validation of the Absorption Scale

“…However, in a study by Watson, Clark, and Chmielewski (2008), this factor, now labeled Oddity, was actually found to supplement the usual FFM dimensions. Although perhaps reflecting a statistical artifact (see Widiger, 2010), this finding could also be interpreted as a further indication that FFM Openness, unlike 5DPT Absorption, does not correlate with positive schizotypy. Moreover, if maladaptive Openness is defined in terms of the aberrant perceptions and beliefs of the schizotype, the focus is on features that-in contrast with the characteristics representing 5DPT A-do not coincide with the normal pole of Eysenck's normality versus psychosis continuum.…”

Measurement and Assessment of Child and Adolescent Personality Pathology: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…A full understanding of the same construct across development will require more flexible thinking about its manifestation. Esterberg and colleagues (2010) provide examples of early correlates for Cluster A PDs that may represent early phenotypic expression of the same underlying PD construct that is observed in adults (Widiger 2010). In addition, a developmental psychopathology framework emphasizes the importance of studying normal and abnormal development alongside one another (Cicchetti and Crick 2009).…”

“…One important future direction in this research areaevident from the manuscripts in this issue-is the turn toward a dimensional conceptualization of personality pathology (Clark 2010;Morey 2010;Widiger 2010). Dimensional approaches have been used to study adult PDs for some time now, but recent considerations by the DSM-5 work group suggest a more primary role for dimensional PD models in the future.…”

“…The commentaries in this issue by Clark, Morey, and Widiger all offer important points of consideration as we move toward a new dimensional classification system. Many of these points are ripe for study with younger age groups, including the relation between PD types versus traits (Clark 2010), the relative value of different levels of analysis (Morey 2010), and the nature of relations between personality pathology and various Axis I disorders (Widiger 2010).…”

Cross‐sample and cross‐language invariance of the Five‐Dimensional Personality Test (5DPT): exploratory and confirmatory analyses using Dutch, American and Italian samples

“…2 2 It is also of interest to note that the 5DPT dimensions correlate moderately to strongly with the lexically inspired FFM factors (Van Kampen, ). With these correlations in mind, the 5DPT Absorption scale is presently considered by Widiger (, ) to be of help in improving the FFM from a clinical perspective.…”