A brief version of the DIPSI maladaptive trait measure for children and adolescents

Psychol Assess. 2021 Sep;33(9):880-889. doi: 10.1037/pas0001032. Epub 2021 Apr 22.

Abstract

The present study addresses the need for short and accessible maladaptive trait measures that cover all relevant aspects of developmental trait pathology, in order to comprehensively assess potential antecedents of personality pathology. From this perspective, we present a 98-item version of the well-established Dimensional Personality Symptom Item Pool (DIPSI) measure (DIPSI-B), that is fully age-neutral across the developmental stages of childhood and adolescence, and further includes those items from the original measure with the most optimal coverage of the latent traits. Relying on a large community-based sample of Flemish children and adolescents (N = 1873) randomly split and balanced in terms of age and gender, a precise selection of items was performed followed by an inspection of psychometric properties. The final item-set appears to be reliable, structurally stable, and invariant across both gender and age. We hope that its feasibility stimulates the integration of the DIPSI-B in ongoing prospective designs examining developmental antecedents of personality disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Child
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Personality Disorders* / diagnosis
  • Personality Disorders* / psychology
  • Personality Inventory*
  • Psychometrics
  • Reproducibility of Results