Cohort study highlights impaired personality functioning in adolescents, suggesting a need for better diagnostics.
Background: Adolescents admitted as acute inpatients are a particularly vulnerable psychosocial population. This study aimed to examine their level of personality functioning in an acute psychiatric treatment setting. Methods: We evaluated personality functioning in 62 adolescents using the Level of Personality Functioning-Questionnaire 12-18 (LoPF-Q 12-18) from a patient perspective and the Level of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS) completed by clinicians. Results: Adolescent patients exhibited a relatively high level of impaired personality functioning, with females tending to show partly higher levels of impairment than males. The agreement between self-reported and clinician reported impairment of personality functioning was low. Biopsychosocial mental health was a strong predictor of self-reported and clinician-reported levels of personality functioning, in contrast to nonsuicidal self-injurious behavior and suicidality. Conclusion: Our findings identify important characteristics of adolescents in acute psychiatric inpatient units. The LoPF-Q may serve as a valuable screening tool for diagnostics and treatment.
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Zapf et al. (2025) studied this question.
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