The hierarchical structure of personality and common psychopathology in childhood

The study examined the hierarchical structure of child personality and common psychopathology in a community sample of 2-18-year-olds (N = 1926) using parent reported Inventory of Child Individual Differences-Short version and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. A joint higher-order factor analysis suggested a four-factor solution; the hierarchical framework showed that normal personality traits and problem behaviors are integrated within the same structural model from the early years onwards. The three-factor level, with a positive personality factor and two broad psychopathology factors, externalizing and internalizing, resembled the three developmental orientations of moving toward, against or away from the world. The findings suggest that personality and common psychopathology share the same temperamental origins in behavioral inhibition and negative affect.