Measurement and Assessment of Child and Adolescent Personality Pathology: Introduction to the Special Issue

An understanding of personality pathology in younger populations is severely deficient, due in part to limitations imposed on youth personality disorder (PD) diagnoses in DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association 2000). The validity of maladaptive personality traits early in life, however, has been increasingly documented (Tackett et al. 2009), suggesting a need for attention to this understudied area of research. The movement toward a better understanding of child and adolescent PDs is reflected in a recent two-part special issue in Development and Psychopathology focusing on precursors and trajectories of youth PD (Cicchetti and Crick 2009). Although the recent surge in interest in this topic is encouraging, it brings with it a need to closely examine our measurement and assessment of these constructs in younger age groups (Clark 2010). The purpose of this special issue was to highlight approaches toward better measurement and assessment of personality pathology in children and adolescents.