A longitudinal study of the utility of the resilient, overcontrolled, and undercontrolled personality types as predictors of children’s and adolescents’ problem behaviour

Abstract

This study addresses the utility of the resilient, overcontrolled, and undercontrolled personality prototypes for predicting children’s and adolescents’ problem behaviour in a longitudinal general population sample ( N 1/4 491). Both parents and one child participated in the study at two measurement occasions separated by a 3-year interval. The major objective was to examine whether the prototypes predict different clinical patterns, as reflected by mean-level differences on the internalising and the externalising dimensions of the CBCL and the YSR. Prototype membership was derived from cluster analysing parental ratings of personality and adolescent self-rated personality. All three types could only be recovered from the adolescent self-ratings of personality. Although the prototypes showed clear differential relationships with measures of internalising and externalising problem behaviour, hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that personality types do not predict adolescent problem behaviour beyond what is predicted by personality dimensions.