title: Defense styles, personality traits, and psychopathological symptoms in nonclinical adolescents.
abstract: The purpose of the present study was to examine relationships between defense styles, personality traits, and psychopathological symptoms in nonclinical youths. A large sample of adolescents (n = 437) completed the Defense Style Questionnaire for Adolescents, the Junior version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and a scale measuring symptoms of DSM-defined disorders. Results showed that there were clear relationships between personality traits (neuroticism and psychoticism) and defense styles (neurotic and immature defense) on the one hand and psychopathological symptoms on the other hand. Most importantly, regression analyses indicated that personality traits and defense styles both accounted for unique proportions of the variance in psychopathological symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical, Clinical, and Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Muris
authors.forename: Danny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Winands
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Horselenberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010556:Personality Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires