Relationships: empirical contribution. Understanding personality pathology in adolescents: the five factor model of personality and social information processing

Practitioner Review: Borderline personality disorder in adolescence--recent conceptualization, intervention, and implications for clinical practice

BACKGROUND

The past decade has seen an unprecedented increase in research activity on personality disorders (PDs) in adolescents. The increase in research activity, in addition to major nosological systems legitimizing the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in adolescents, highlights the need to communicate new research on adolescent personality problems to practitioners.

SCOPE

In this review, we provide up-to-date information on the phenomenology, prevalence, associated clinical problems, etiology, and intervention for BPD in adolescents. Our aim was to provide a clinically useful practitioner review and to dispel long-held myths about the validity, diagnostic utility, and treatability of PDs in adolescents.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

Alongside providing up-to-date information on the phenomenology, prevalence, and etiology, we also report on associated clinical problems and interventions for adolescent BPD. It is only through early active assessment and identification of youngsters with these problems that a lifetime of personal suffering and health system burden can be reduced or altogether avoided. A variety of evidence-based approaches are now available to treat BPD and related clinical problems in young people. Future research should focus on establishing optimal precision in the diagnostic processes in different treatment settings.

Relationships: commentary. Personality, relationships, and behavior problems: it's hard to be disagreeable

Low agreeableness is defined and discussed. Disagreeable youth are antagonistic, disputatious, and uncooperative. The low agreeable share two common problems: behavior troubles and interpersonal troubles. A cascade model is suggested whereby initial modest difficulties follow a progressively accelerating trajectory. The cascade begins with temperamental difficultness, manifest in uncooperativeness and poor self-control. These traits elicit negativity, giving rise to relationship troubles that interfere with socialization and isolate these children from good-tempered peers. Behavior problems and coercive interaction strategies combine to exacerbate disagreeable inclinations that tend to worsen adjustment and interpersonal difficulties.