Dimensional Assessment of Personality Disorders in Young People: A Closer Look on Personality Functioning in Younger Ages, Different cultures, and Various Clinical Settings

The Alternative Model to diagnose Personality Disorders (AMPD) in the DSM-5 introduced a dimensional approach to assess an overall measure of personality disorders (PD) severity (Criterion A). Four dimensions of personality functioning are supposed to describe the core impairments of PD: Identity, Self-Direction, Empathy, and Intimacy. According to the final draft of PD classification in the upcoming ICD-11, the basic definition of PD will be very similar to the DSM-5 AMPD. The Operationalised Psychodynamic Diagnosis (OPD-CA-2) provides a similar model to assess the severity of a patients’ structural impairment, using the four dimensions of personality structure: Control, Identity, Interpersonality, and Attachment.

To investigate the potential of these dimensional models to detect emerging personality disorders in children, adolescents and young adults, and to promote early detection and early intervention (in line with the GAP agenda), reliable and valid assessment tools specifically adapted for younger ages and the cultural context are needed. Several international research groups are developing dimensional instruments to assess personality functioning in adolescents or young adults. However, these instruments differ concerning their concrete structure of domains and subdomains, their cultural background, and their study design, especially regarding the clinical adolescent samples.

This Research Topic aims to promote the early detection of personality pathology in young people ranging from subthreshold to full-blown personality disorders that can be used in various cultural backgrounds. We will provide a comparison of international studies and an evaluation of the appropriateness of this dimensional approach concerning different age groups and cultural backgrounds. We want to achieve a comprehensive collection of different assessment tools. To enable a standardized comparison, all articles should focus on the diagnostic potential of the used instrument and should include well-described patient samples from different cultural and ethnic origin.

Submissions addressing the following are especially welcome:

·      Clinical utility of assessment tools for PD in adolescence

·      Psychometric properties of culture-adapted versions

·      Levels of impairment in different patient populations

·      Using dimensional outcome variables to foster a staging approach to PD

·      Using dimensional outcome variables in therapy studies

·      Assessing various types of personality disorders in young people beyond Borderline PD

·      Trajectories of personality functioning from adolescence to young adulthood