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Childhood personality pathology: Dimensional stability and change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Barbara de Clercq ,
Karla van Leeuwen ,
Wim van den Noortgate ,
Marleen de Bolle  and
Filip de Fruyt
Barbara de Clercq*
Affiliation:
Ghent University
Karla van Leeuwen
Affiliation:
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Wim van den Noortgate
Affiliation:
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Marleen de Bolle
Affiliation:
Ghent University
Filip de Fruyt
Affiliation:
Ghent University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Barbara De Clercq, Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, H. Dunantlaan 2, B-9000 Gent, Belgium; E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

Studies on the developmental course of personality disorders have suggested that adult personality disorders enclose both features with a natural plasticity over time, as well as stable components represented by underlying trait dimensions. The current study broadens this dimensional stability perspective toward an earlier developmental stage, and describes with different indices of stability the longitudinal behavior of basic childhood maladaptive trait dimensions in a community sample of 477 Flemish children. The results underscore structural, rank-order, and within-person stability for the disagreeableness, emotional instability, introversion, and compulsivity dimensions and suggest a similar maturation principle as has been proposed for adults. Individual growth curve analyses indicate that children's maladaptive trait scores generally decrease as they grow older, with a smaller decline for high-scoring individuals. Childhood maladaptive traits and general psychopathology dimensions show similar longitudinal patterns in terms of shape and change over time, supporting a spectrum conceptualization of Axis I related pathology and personality disorder precursors at young age. The implications of these findings for a developmental perspective on dimensional conceptualizations of personality disorders are discussed.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 21 , Issue 3: Precursors and Diverse Pathways to Personality Disorder in Children and Adolescents: Part 1 , August 2009 , pp. 853 - 869
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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