Assessing personality structure in adolescence. Development of the Adolescent Personality Questionnaire (APS-Q)

Objective. Adolescence is a crucial period for the development and consolidation of personality. As adolescents deal with changes related to both body and neurophysiological development, they also face psychological changes in the perception of their self and interpersonal functioning. According to the object relations theoretical framework, this contribution aims at presenting data on the development of the Adolescent Personality Questionnaire (APS-Q) an agile but reliable measure to evaluate pathological personality functioning in adolescence. Indeed, there is a lack of self-report instruments to assess pathological personality functioning in adolescence directly aimed for the adolescent population and shaped according to the core aspects of (mal)adaptive personality acknowledging features related to self (identity) and interpersonal (object relations) dimensions and affect regulation. Methods. The study involved overall 1557 participants, recruited from middle and secondary schools in Northern Italy. A first sample compiled a pilot version of the APS-Q to run Principal Component Analysis (PCS) and test for construct and test-retest validity. A second sample compiled the final version of the APS-Q to run Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and check for relationships with borderline and narcissistic traits as also for psychological problems. Results. Data suggest a strong factorial structure for the APS-Q, encompassing seven dimensions of personality functioning related to self and interpersonal aspects as well as affect regulation. Furthermore, impairments in personality functioning measured with the APS-Q were significantly associated with specific pathological personality traits and psychological problems. Conclusions. Our results suggest that the APS-Q is a quick and reliable measure to assess emerging personality functioning in adolescence. Moreover, significant relations with maladaptive features (i.e., personality traits and internalizing/externalizing problems) indicate the possibility to efficiently use this instrument in larger batteries to assess crucial dimensions of impairment in adolescence.