4a - Toward the Integration of Developmental Psychopathology and Personality Pathology Perspectives: Commentary on Personality Pathology in Youth

Summary

This commentary on Sharp and De Clerq’s chapter (this volume) describes potential benefits of integrating and synthesizing research conducted primarily predominantly with adults from a personality pathology perspective with the increasingly robust body of research conducted with children and adolescents from a developmental psychopathology perspective. Both perspectives view psychopathology as emerging from an interplay of biologically-based vulnerabilities and risk and protective factors at multiple levels of social ecological systems (e.g., individual, family, community, and culture). Both attempt to understand developmental pathways and trajectories that may evolve into more durable and distinctive patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that may be categorized as a personality disorder or other mental disorder. Both perspectives hope to identify effective interventions that may prevent more severe and chronic disorders among at-risk individuals. The authors argue that the integration of personality pathology and developmental psychopathology perspectives may contribute to the development of more sophisticated transdiagnostic approaches that inform clinical case formulation and treatment planning for children and adolescents.