Development and Initial Validation of the Pathological Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Scale for Children (POPS-C)

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Psychopathology

Background:

• Personality traits, including obsessive-compulsive personality (OCP) traits, are measurable in childhood.
• Research on OCP traits in youth is limited by a lack of developmentally appropriate assessment tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To adapt an adult measure of OCP traits (POPS) into a parent-report scale for children (POPS-C).
• To examine the psychometric properties and external validity of the POPS-C in children aged 4-9 years.

Main Methods:

• Adaptation of the Pathological Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Scale (POPS) into a parent-report child measure (POPS-C).
• Two studies involving factor structure analysis, confirmatory factor analyses, and external validity assessments with clinical measures.
• Utilized parent reports for children aged 4-9 years.

Main Results:

• The POPS-C demonstrated good psychometric properties, with a bifactor model showing the best fit.
• The scale successfully validated OCP traits as measurable in children aged 4-9 years.
• POPS-C scores were strongly associated with negative affectivity, executive functioning deficits, elevated delay of gratification, poor emotion regulation, and psychiatric symptoms.

Conclusions:

• Obsessive-compulsive personality traits are evident and reliably measurable in early childhood using the POPS-C.
• The findings underscore the importance of early assessment and intervention for children exhibiting OCP traits.
• The POPS-C serves as a valuable tool for identifying OCP traits in young children.