A Brief Version of the DIPSI Maladaptive Trait Measure for Children and Adolescents

The present study addresses the need for short and accessible maladaptive trait measures that cover all relevant aspects of developmental trait pathology, in order to comprehensively assess potential antecedents of personality pathology. From this perspective, we present a 98-item version of the wel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological assessment 2021-09, Vol.33 (9), p.880-889
Main Authors: Rouco, Victor, Franssens, Raissa, De Clercq, Barbara
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Adolescent Development
Child Psychopathology
Children & youth
Female
Human
Internal Consistency
Male
Personality Disorders
Personality Measures
Personality Traits
Psychopathology
Teenagers
Test Construction
Test Validity
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Summary:The present study addresses the need for short and accessible maladaptive trait measures that cover all relevant aspects of developmental trait pathology, in order to comprehensively assess potential antecedents of personality pathology. From this perspective, we present a 98-item version of the well-established Dimensional Personality Symptom Item Pool (DIPSI) measure (DIPSI-B), that is fully age-neutral across the developmental stages of childhood and adolescence, and further includes those items from the original measure with the most optimal coverage of the latent traits. Relying on a large community-based sample of Flemish children and adolescents (N = 1873) randomly split and balanced in terms of age and gender, a precise selection of items was performed followed by an inspection of psychometric properties. The final item-set appears to be reliable, structurally stable, and invariant across both gender and age. We hope that its feasibility stimulates the integration of the DIPSI-B in ongoing prospective designs examining developmental antecedents of personality disorders. Public Significance Statement Increasing evidence suggests that adult personality pathology has significant developmental trait antecedents in youth. Early detection and intervention can therefore be essential for its prevention or alleviation. The present study contributes this research area by developing a brief but comprehensive measure of maladaptive traits for children and adolescents, which can be used to detect signs of trait vulnerabilities in a timely stage of development.
ISSN:1040-3590
1939-134X
DOI:10.1037/pas0001032