Abstract
BackgroundIn the revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5), “Identity” is an essential diagnostic criterion for personality disorders (self-related personality functioning) in the alternative approach to the diagnosis of personality disorders in Section III of DSM-5. Integrating a broad range of established identity concepts, AIDA (Assessment of Identity Development in Adolescence) is a new questionnaire to assess pathology-related identity development in healthy and disturbed adolescents aged 12 to 18 years. Aim of the present study is to investigate differences in identity development between adolescents with different psychiatric diagnoses.MethodsParticipants were 86 adolescent psychiatric in- and outpatients aged 12 to 18 years. The test set includes the questionnaire AIDA and two semi-structured psychiatric interviews (SCID-II, K-DIPS). The patients were assigned to three diagnostic groups (personality disorders, internalizing disorders, externalizing disorders). Differences were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance MANOVA.ResultsIn line with our hypotheses, patients with personality disorders showed the highest scores in all AIDA scales with T>70. Patients with externalizing disorders showed scores in an average range compared to population norms, while patients with internalizing disorders lay in between with scores around T=60. The AIDA total score was highly significant between the groups with a remarkable effect size of f= 0.44.ConclusionImpairment of identity development differs between adolescent patients with different forms of mental disorders. The AIDA questionnaire is able to discriminate between these groups. This may help to improve assessment and treatment of adolescents with severe psychiatric problems.
Highlights
In the revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5), “Identity” is an essential diagnostic criterion for personality disorders in the alternative approach to the diagnosis of personality disorders in Section III of DSM-5
Patients who clearly fulfilled the DSM-IV criteria of a personality disorder were allocated to the PD-group independently of axis I comorbidities like anxiety or depression
In line with our hypotheses, the patients with personality disorders showed the highest scores in all AIDA scales, the patients with externalizing disorders the lowest scores, while the patients with internalizing disorders scored in between
Summary
In the revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5), “Identity” is an essential diagnostic criterion for personality disorders (self-related personality functioning) in the alternative approach to the diagnosis of personality disorders in Section III of DSM-5. Erikson [1] defines identity as a hybrid concept providing a sense of continuity and a frame to differentiate between self and others, which enables a person to function autonomously. “This sense of Establishing a stable identity is one major development task in adolescence [6]. These challenges of identity formation go along with identity crises that are normal and temporary phenomena in mastering age-related developmental tasks in adolescence [6]. According to Kernberg [7], the transformation of the physical and psychological experiences of young people and the discrepancy between the sense of self and the others’ view of the adolescent lead to identity crises. Erikson [1] emphasizes the need for resolution of identity crises by synthesizing previous identifications and introjections into a consolidated identity
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