General personality and psychopathology in referred and nonreferred children and adolescents: An investigation of continuity, pathoplasty, and complication models.

This study investigated the continuity, pathoplasty, and complication models as plausible explanations for personality-psychopathology relations in a combined sample of community (n = 571) and referred (n = 146) children and adolescents. Multivariate structural equation modeling was used to examine the structural relations between latent personality and psychopathology change across a 2-year period. Item response theory models were fitted as an additional test of the continuity hypothesis. Even after correcting for item overlap, the results provided strong support for the continuity model, demonstrating that personality and psychopathology displayed dynamic change patterns across time. Item response theory models further supported the continuity conceptualization for understanding the association between internalizing problems and emotional stability and extraversion as well as between externalizing problems and benevolence and conscientiousness. In addition to the continuity model, particular personality and psychopathology combinations provided evidence for the pathoplasty and complication models. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.