Toward a Better Understanding of Gender Differences in Psychopathology in Detained Adolescents: The Role of Maladaptive Personality Traits

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study investigates the often observed higher scores on psychopathology in detained girls compared to boys from a maladaptive trait perspective, as conceived by age-specific criterion B assessment of the Alternative Model of Personality Disorders. Participants were detained youth (N = 237; 122 boys; 115 girls, mean age = 15.8 years) from two youth detention centers in Belgium, who completed self-reports on maladaptive traits and psychopathology. Results confirm that the higher rates of psychopathology in incarcerated girls extend to the maladaptive trait level, with particularly higher levels of Emotional Instability and Oddity. In addition, a stronger co-occurrence of psychopathology with maladaptive traits was found for girls, especially for anxious-depressed, angry-irritable, and post-traumatic symptoms. These findings suggest that mental health problems in detained girls appear to be much more related to personality difficulties compared to detained boys, and advocate the inclusion of comprehensive maladaptive trait assessment and gender-sensitive intervention programs for mental health problems in detained youth.