title: The externalizing spectrum in youth: incorporating personality pathology.
abstract: Although personality disorder characteristics are often grouped with externalizing problems in adults, little is known about the extent to which they define the externalizing spectrum in youth. We examined the extent to which personality pathology traits in youth reflected common and specific variance in externalizing problems and explored differentiation of these connections by age. Parents reported on physical aggression, rule-breaking, relational aggression, and personality pathology traits for 1080 youth (48.8% male) ages 6-18 years. Disagreeableness and emotional instability traits were correlated with a general externalizing factor as well as with specific behavioral subfactors. The magnitude of these correlations varied across age, with the highest magnitude evidenced during the developmental periods of greatest prevalence for the specific externalizing behavior subtype. Taken together, these findings suggest that personality pathology is tightly connected with externalizing problems in youth, especially during developmental periods when externalizing problems are common.
authors.affiliation: University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204, USA. Electronic address: jltackett@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Tackett
authors.affiliation: University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204, USA. Electronic address: kherzhoff@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Kathrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Herzhoff
authors.affiliation: University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204, USA. Electronic address: kwreardon@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Kathleen W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Reardon
authors.affiliation: Universiteit Gent, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: BarbaraJ.Declercq@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: De Clercq
authors.affiliation: University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204, USA. Electronic address: csharp2@central.uh.edu.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sharp
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000367:Age Factors; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D057189:Checklist; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Adolescence; Externalizing; Normative hypothesis; Personality disorder; Physical aggression; Relational aggression