A five-factor model of developmental personality pathology precursors

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Psychopathology

Background:

• Growing consensus supports a dimensional structure for early personality pathology, mirroring adult frameworks.
• The Dimensional Personality Symptom Itempool (DIPSI) was expanded to a 5-factor structure: Disagreeableness, Emotional Instability, Introversion, Compulsivity, and Oddity.
• Further research is needed to validate this developmental maladaptive trait structure for early personality dysfunction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the fit of the 5-factor DIPSI framework across multiple samples.
• To replicate higher-order factors and assess their psychometric properties (scalar and metric invariance).
• To validate the DIPSI measure for describing childhood personality pathology precursors.

Main Methods:

• Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) analyses were conducted.
• Data from 4 diverse samples (N = 1456) were analyzed.
• Scalar invariance across age and metric invariance across informants and clinical status were tested.

Main Results:

• The 5-factor DIPSI framework demonstrated a good fit across the studied samples.
• Five higher-order factors were successfully replicated.
• The factors showed scalar invariance across age and metric invariance across informants and clinical status.

Conclusions:

• The findings underscore the robustness of five underlying dimensions of personality pathology in young individuals.
• The study highlights the adequate psychometric properties of the DIPSI measure.
• The DIPSI is a promising tool for describing precursors to childhood personality pathology.