Youth-Parent Agreement on Maladaptive Personality Traits: Age Effects and Associations With Satisfaction in Life

This study examines the agreement in youth self-report (YSR) and parent report (PR) on five maladaptive personality traits as measured with the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 in an outpatient mental health care sample (N = 292). Age differences in YSR-PR agreement (i.e., age 12-17, years; n = 129 versus 18-24 years; n = 163) are investigated as well as associations of YSR-PR agreement with youth's self-reported satisfaction with life (SWL). The combined sample demonstrated significant differences between YSR and PR for all maladaptive traits, except for Detachment. However, effect sizes of these differences are small. For all traits except Antagonism, YSR exceeded PR. YSR-PR differences did not differ between age groups, except in the case of Psychoticism, with better agreement in the older age group. Furthermore, results indicated higher SWL when YSR < PR and a lower SWL when YSR > PR. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.