Personality Assessment of Children and Adolescents

This review offers a theoretical and practical guide to assessing a broad range of personality differences in middle childhood and adolescence. We begin by highlighting normative changes in middle childhood and adolescence that shape the personality differences youth display. We then review the assessment of four broad domains of personality in children and adolescents: temperament and personality traits, social-emotional-behavioral (SEB) skills, motivation and agency (including goals, values, and interests), and narrative identity. We conclude by offering a primer of general principles for assessing personality in childhood and adolescence: pursuing ongoing construct validation, weighing strengths and weaknesses of various informants and data sources, combining measures, addressing heterotypic continuity, obtaining child self-reports, and pursuing promising new directions. It is well worth taking on the challenges inherent in assessing these individual differences because children and adolescents display a rich, complex, and meaningful set of still-changing personality differences that shape the course of their lives. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, Volume 3 is December 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Overprotective Parenting Mediates the Relationship Between Early Childhood ADHD and Anxiety Symptoms: Evidence From a Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Study

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is often comorbid with anxiety disorders in children. Both ADHD and anxiety in childhood has been linked to overprotective parenting styles. In the current study we examine a model wherein early ADHD symptoms predict overprotective parenting, which in turn predicts anxiety symptoms later in childhood. In Study 1 we utilize cross-sectional data in 102 child/parent dyads between the ages of 5 and 7 years old and Study 2 extends these findings by examining this same mediation model longitudinally in 376 child/parent dyads who were assessed when children were 3, 6, and 9 years old. Results from both studies supported a mediation model wherein the relationship between child ADHD symptoms and child anxiety symptoms was mediated by parental overprotection. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to examine overprotective parenting as a mechanism underlying the heterotypic continuity or sequential comorbidity of ADHD to anxiety symptoms.

Adulthood outcomes of joint mental health trajectories: A group-based trajectory model analysis of a 13-year longitudinal cohort study

Developmental trajectories of common mental health issues such as ADHD, internalising problems, and externalising problems can often be usefully summarised in terms of a small number of developmental subtypes and given the strong tendency for symptoms in these three domains to co-occur, it is useful to consider developmental subtypes jointly defined by them. To provide information on the likely nature and intensity of support needs required for individuals showing different ADHD-internalising-externalising developmental subtypes, we here evaluated the relations between subtypes previously derived using group-based trajectory modelling in the z-proso study (n=1620 with trajectory data at ages 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,15) and adult outcomes. We found that individuals with multimorbid trajectories but not ‘pure’ internalising problem elevations have higher levels of social exclusion and delinquency at age 20. These associations held irrespective of the specific developmental course of symptoms (e.g. early versus late onset versus remitting). There was also some evidence that intimate partner violence acts as a form of heterotypic continuity for earlier externalising problems. Results underline the need for early intervention to address the pathways that lead to social exclusion and delinquency among young people with multiple co-occurring mental health issues.

Heterogeneity and heterotypic continuity of emotional and behavioural profiles across development

PurposeTo identify profiles of emotional and behavioural symptoms from early childhood to adolescence, their stability across development and associated factors.MethodsOur sample included 17,216 children assessed at ages 3, 5, 7, 11, and 14 from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. We used latent profile and latent transition analysis to study their emotional and behavioural profiles from early childhood to adolescence. We included sociodemographic, family, and parenting variables to study the effect on the latent profile’s membership and transitions.ResultsThe number and specific profiles of emotional and behavioural symptoms change with the developmental stage. We found a higher number of profiles for ages 3, 5, and 14, which suggests greater heterogeneity in the presentation of emotional and behavioural symptoms for early childhood and adolescence compared to late childhood. There was greater heterotypic continuity between ages 3 and 5, particularly in transitions from higher to lower severity profiles. Children exposed to socioeconomic disadvantages were more likely to belong or transition to any moderate or high emotional and behavioural symptoms profiles. Maternal psychological distress and harsh parenting were associated with internalizing and externalizing profiles, respectively. Higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms across development were associated with lower mental wellbeing and higher rates of self-harm and substance use in adolescence.ConclusionEmotional and behavioural symptoms develop early in life, with levels of heterogeneity and heterotypic stability that change throughout development. These results call for interventions for the prevention and treatment of pediatric mental illness that can account for the heterogeneity and stability of symptoms across development.