Personal Values and Psychopathology in a Diverse Youth Sample

Substantial research has examined the associations between youth personality traits and psychopathology, with little attention to the role that personal values might play. Previous work has indicated that youth’s personal values are related to, yet distinct from, personality traits. In adults, personal values are associated with psychopathological constructs such as depression, anxiety, and aggressive/rule-breaking behaviors; however, questions remain about the associations between values and psychopathology in youth, whether values moderate the association between traits and psychopathology, and whether values contribute incremental variance to psychopathology over and above associations with personality traits. The present study sought to answer these questions. Using a diverse sample of 350 children ( M age = 9.81, SD = 0.66 years, 185 girls) and their caregivers, we examined youth self-reported personal values, parent-reported youth personality traits, and parent-reported youth internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. High hedonism, high power, and low universalism were significantly associated with externalizing psychopathology, and these associations largely did not differ across gender or racial/ethnic groups. Personal values did not moderate established trait-psychopathology associations. Finally, personal values incremented the prediction of externalizing, but not internalizing, psychopathology, beyond personality traits. Collectively, results indicate that youth’s personal values may capture different aspects of psychopathology than personality traits, particularly with externalizing psychopathology. Future studies should incorporate youth personal values for a more comprehensive understanding of the manifestation and development of youth psychopathology.