Predicting adolescents' global functioning from personality typologies

This study examined the utility of three personality typologies in predicting global functioning in a non-clinic sample of adolescents. Participants were 140 students from middle class suburban public high schools (74 girls; mean age = 16.0 +/- 1.2; 70.7% Caucasian, 11.4% African American, 7.1% Asian, 7.1% Hispanic, and 3.6% other) who completed psychometrically sound standardized measures of personality. They were combined into three four quadrant personality typologies. Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) ratings were based on clinical interviews utilizing DSM criteria and were obtained by raters blind to self-report results. All three systems overlapped modestly but significantly. Each model detected significant GAF differences among quadrants. There was no gender difference in representation among the quadrants of the three systems. Results suggest that compared with unitary dimensions of personality, typologies concurrently utilizing two dimensions of personality functioning better capture individual differences on a complex psychological construct such as global functioning. Further research is warranted to examine the utility of these typological systems in predicting global functioning across a variety of clinical and nonclinical adolescent populations, and to determine how other aspects of global functioning may influence or interact with personality typologies.