A General and Maladaptive Personality Perspective on Youth Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms

Based on Krueger's (2005) conceptual model of the personality-psychopathology relationship, this study examines how personality predicts different youth obsessive-compulsive symptoms, comparing the relative contribution of general and maladaptive personality traits. Three-hundred forty-four adolescents provided self-reports on an obsessive-compulsive scale, and their mothers rated their child's general and maladaptive personality. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that personality differentially predicts obsessive-compulsive symptomatology, and that the relative significance of general versus maladaptive personality predictors differs across various forms of obsessive-compulsive pathology. The results are discussed in terms of the value of including both general and maladaptive personality measures in the assessment of early obsessive-compulsive difficulties.