Depression and Axis II symptomatology in an adolescent community sample: concurrent and longitudinal associations

The relationship between personality pathology and depression has been the focus of increasing attention, but few investigators have examined this issue prospectively or in adolescent community samples. The present study used both self report and interviewer assessments of personality disorder symptomatology and depression in a sample of 155 late adolescent women followed over three years. Personality pathology cluster and total scores demonstrated moderate to fairly high degrees of stability, indicating endurance of these traits in late adolescence. As predicted, Axis II symptoms were associated with concurrent depressive symptomatology. Overall, self-reported personality disorder symptoms, as well as those specifically in Clusters A and B, predicted interviewer-rated depression over two years beyond the contribution of initial depression, indicating that subclinical Axis II symptoms are a risk factor for subsequent depressive symptomatology.