Daily Interpersonal and Affective Manifestations of Maladaptive Personality in Adolescent Girls

There is general agreement that personality pathology has its roots in childhood and adolescence, though little is known about the manifestation of maladaptive personality traits in the daily lives of youth. The DSM-5 Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) provides a set of traits useful for organizing behavioral and experiential patterns central to daily personality functioning. Thus, the goal of the present study was to evaluate interpersonal and affective manifestations indicative of AMPD traits via ambulatory assessments in the daily lives of adolescent girls. Parents and girls (N=129; age: M=12.27, SD=.80) provided baseline assessments of girls’ personality pathology trait constructs (negative affectivity, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, psychoticism). Additionally, girls completed a 16-day ecological momentary assessment protocol, rating behaviors and experiences characteristic of interpersonal interactions in their daily lives. Overall, daily processes were related to each other in plausible directions, both the within- as well as the between-person level. Adolescent- and parent-reported AMPD traits were positively and strongly related to negative affect in daily interpersonal situations. Furthermore, girls’ trait ratings were associated with boredom, disappointment in others, as well as social reward. Parent-reports complemented this perspective of dissatisfying social interactions, suggesting that especially disinhibition, detachment and antagonism accounted for lower levels of social connectedness, activity, and reward in daily life. Results are discussed in terms of their contribution to our understanding of personality pathology from a developmental perspective.