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Increasing evidence shows that personality pathology starts to develop from (late) childhood onwards. The current study extends previous research by examining maladaptive personality change using both a variable-centered approach (i.e., mean-level changes) and a person-centered approach (i.e., latent profile transitions). Data were used from a 3-wave longitudinal study on Dutch youth (at T1: N = 492, mean age = 10.1). Maladaptive personality traits (i.e., Emotional Instability, Disagreeableness, Introversion, and Compulsivity) were assessed yearly using the Dimensional Personality Symptom Item Pool (DIPSI). A Factor of Curves model indicated presence of a higher-order developmental factor, reflecting low initial levels and small decreases over time, which explained change in all DIPSI traits. Latent profile analyses revealed three quantitatively different maladaptive personality trait profiles. Latent Transition Analysis demonstrated substantial stability in profiles over time. Small groups showed a transition toward another (often more adaptive) profile. Although a person-centered approach may have some merit when aiming to detect high-risk subgroups, the current results suggest that a variable-centered approach—and a Factor of Curves model capturing shared underlying developmental processes in particular—is favorable over a person-centered approach.

Personality develops across the lifespan, but most development occurs in adolescence and young adulthood. Life transitions to new social roles may be important drivers of mean-level personality development. The present study examined mean-level personality development in adolescence and young adulthood, and the role of the transition to tertiary education and working life therein in a sample of Dutch young people that were followed across 14 years (N = 497, Age(W1) = 13.03 years). We explored whether young people's self-concept clarity moderated these associations. Our hypotheses and analytical plan were pre-registered. Findings from Latent Growth Models showed support for maturation in personality across adolescence and young adulthood, but not a maturity dip. Having the role of employee was associated with higher conscientiousness, but no associations were found of the transition to tertiary education and the transition to work with mean-level development of any of the personality traits. Self-concept clarity did not moderate the role of transitions in mean-level personality development. Our findings suggest that socialization effects may not explain associations between life transitions and personality development in adolescence and young adulthood.

The secondary school transition is an important moment in adolescents' lives. Taking a prospective approach, the present study examined whether educational identity regarding a secondary school choice and own and parental expectations during the last year of primary school predicted post-transition school and psychological adjustment in Dutch adolescents (N = 314, Mage = 11.58). Additionally, the study qualitatively examined the reasons adolescents gave for their school choice, and linked these reasons to exploration behavior and post-transition adjustment. Identity processes and expectations predicted adjustment. Adolescents mostly reported multiple reasons for their school choice, with educational, practical, and social aspects of secondary schools appearing most important. The number of reasons mentioned was associated with pre-transition exploration behavior.

Identity development—exploring options and making commitments—is an important process related to human functioning across the lifespan. An accurate understanding of identity development processes requires precise measures, but commonly used questionnaires have not been subject to intensive psychometric analyses. We investigated the psychometric properties of two such measures, the Utrecht Management of Identity Commitments Scale and the Dimensions of Identity Development Scale. Previous analyses have treated the response scales as interval rather than ordinal, which may not be reasonable given the measures’ Likert-type response scales. Accordingly, we evaluated their measurement precision by conducting multidimensional item response theory analyses of data from six studies of secondary and postsecondary students in The Netherlands and the United States (total N = 4,844; 36.00% boys/men, 63.07% girls/women; 0.02% nonbinary or missing gender data; 62.39% completed the measure in Dutch, 37.61% in English; 52.66% postsecondary school; 47.34% secondary school; racial, ethnic, and nationality information varied across studies). Graded response models showed that a limited range of the latent attributes was precisely measured, and the quality of items varied considerably. The measures functioned mostly similarly between gender groups, but there was substantial differential item functioning based on school level and language of the measure. We originally sought to create shortened versions, but the shortened versions provided no improvement over the low quality of the longer versions. Our analyses suggest that reflection on what these identity processes entail is needed, to develop new items that address different manifestations of the attributes under consideration. Impact Statement This study evaluated two measures of identity development among adolescents and young adults in the United States and The Netherlands. We examined how responses to questions relate

Objective One way in which individuals construct their narrative identity is by making self-event connections, which are often linked to better functioning. Being unable to make connections is related to identity discontinuity and psychopathology. Work in the general population corroborates this association, but also highlights the importance of focusing on specific aspects of these connections and on vulnerable populations. Method We examined the association of self-event connections with personality functioning in youth with severe psychopathology (cross-sectional N = 228, M-age = 19.5, longitudinal N = 84), and the role of event and connection valence in the subsample of youth who made a connection (n = 188 and n = 68). Negative affectivity was controlled for in all models. Results We found no evidence that self-event connections, nor connection valence and its interaction with event valence, are related to functioning. Positive event valence was associated with better functioning. Higher negative affectivity was strongly linked to lower functioning and explained the relation between event valence and functioning. No longitudinal associations emerged. Conclusions These findings show that for youth with severe psychopathology making self-event connections may not be associated with better functioning. Moreover, negative affectivity may be a distal predictor of both event valence and functioning.

In the educational domain, the development of identity becomes especially salient during school transition phases. To assess the specific identity processes that match the adolescents' experiences before and after the school transition, the Educational Identity Processes Scale (EIPS) was developed. The present study aimed to test the psychometric qualities of the EIPS by examining its factor structure, the internal and convergent validity of the identity dimensions, and whether the questionnaire was measurement invariant over time. The pre-transition version was tested in a Dutch sample (N = 242 early adolescents) and the post-transition version was tested in a Lithuanian sample (N = 1,268 mid-adolescents). Findings indicated good psychometric qualities for both the pre- and post-transition versions of the EIPS. Additionally, context dependencies were observed, as distance to the transition influenced the meaning of specific identity processes and determined whether specific processes could be considered as part of normative development.