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Biomedical subjects

R F Krueger

Publications and source records attributed to R F Krueger.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Personality disorders in children and adolescents.

The personality disorder (PD) construct continues to be controversial when applied to children and adolescents. Nevertheless, recent research indicates that PDs do occur in youth, and that PDs in youth have meaningful correlates and consequences. We provide a brief review of research on this topic from the past year, and we suggest that evidence for the reality of PDs in youth should be complemented by considerations from the adult PD literature regarding the importance of moving toward a dimensional descriptive system for PDs.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Using item response theory to understand comorbidity among anxiety and unipolar mood disorders.

The authors hypothesized that anxiety and unipolar mood disorders are often comorbid because each disorder indicates a broad, higher order factor. In a clinical subsample of the nationally representative National Comorbidity Survey participants (N = 251), a one-factor model fit the correlations among 7 dichotomous anxiety and unipolar mood diagnoses. Following the lead provided by literature on the structure of emotional and behavioral problems in children, we labeled this factor internalizing. Item response theory was used to explore how each diagnosis mapped onto the internalizing factor. The test information function derived from the 7 diagnoses suggested that they measure primarily the higher end of the factor. In addition, very high scores on internalizing (meeting criteria for 6-7 disorders) were associated with increased social costs, a phenomenon not well captured by the "comorbidity" concept. The results underscore the need to develop clinical assessment instruments that span the full range of the internalizing factor and measure both the shared and distinctive features of anxiety and unipolar mood disorders in a graded, continuous fashion.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Phenotypic, genetic, and nonshared environmental parallels in the structure of personality: a view from the multidimensional personality questionnaire.

How closely do observed, phenotypic personality structures correspond with underlying, genetic, and environmental personality structures? This question was addressed using data from 2,490 pairs of twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry, who completed A. Tellegen's (1982) Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). Phenotypic, additive genetic, and nonshared environmental correlations were computed among the MPQ's eleven primary scales. Principal component analyses of all three matrices revealed three broad, higher-order components that were readily interpreted as negative emotionality, positive emotionality, and constraint. The components from all three matrices were highly comparable, suggesting that the observed, phenotypic structure of personality corresponds closely with the underlying, etiological structure of personality.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Epidemiological personology: the unifying role of personality in population-based research on problem behaviors.

Epidemiological personology refers to a paradigm in which a developmental perspective on individual differences is paired with a population-based sampling frame to yield insights about the role of personality in consequential social outcomes. We review our work in epidemiological personology, linking personality to diverse, problematic social outcomes: Mental disorders, health-risk behaviors, and violence. We conclude that broad-band personality measurement is both feasible and fruitful in large-scale research on problem behaviors, and we call for increased collaboration between personality psychologists and researchers in fields such as public health, epidemiology, and sociology.

Health Behavior↗
PubMed1999

The structure of common mental disorders.

BACKGROUND: This report presents the results of confirmatory factor analyses of patterns of comorbidity among 10 common mental disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey, a national probability sample of US civilians who completed structured diagnostic interviews. METHODS: Patterns of comorbidity among DSM-III-R mental disorders were analyzed via confirmatory factor analyses for the entire National Comorbidity Survey sample (N = 8098; age range, 15-54 years), for random halves of the sample, for men and women separately, and for a subsample of participants who were seeing a professional about their mental health problems. Four models were compared: a 1-factor model, a 2-factor model in which some disorders represented internalizing problems and others represented externalizing problems, a 3-factor variant of the 2-factor model in which internalizing was modeled as having 2 subfactors (anxious-misery and fear), and a 4-factor model in which the disorders represented separate affective, anxiety, substance dependence, and antisocial factors. RESULTS: The 3-factor model provided the best fit in the entire sample. This result was replicated across random halves of the sample as well as across women and men. The substantial empirical intercorrelation between anxious-misery and fear (0.73) suggested that these factors were most appropriately conceived as subfactors of a higher-order internalizing factor. In the treatment sample, the 2-factor model fit best. CONCLUSIONS: The results offer a novel perspective on comorbidity, suggesting that comorbidity results from common, underlying core psychopathological processes. The results thereby argue for focusing research on these core processes themselves, rather than on their varied manifestations as separate disorders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Personality traits in late adolescence predict mental disorders in early adulthood: a prospective-epidemiological study.

Prospective relations between personality traits and mental disorders were assessed in a longitudinal study of a representative birth cohort of young men and women from Dunedin, New Zealand. Personality traits were assessed via self-report questionnaire at age 18, and mental disorders were assessed via diagnostic interview at both ages 18 and 21. High "negative emotionality" (a propensity to experience aversive affective states) at age 18 was linked with affective, anxiety, substance dependence, and antisocial personality disorders at age 21 when corresponding mental disorders at age 18 were controlled. Low "constraint" (difficulty inhibiting the expression of affect and impulse) at age 18 was linked with substance dependence and antisocial personality disorders at age 21 when corresponding mental disorders at age 18 were controlled. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the development and treatment of mental disorders in young adulthood.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Assortative mating for antisocial behavior: developmental and methodological implications.

Do people mate assortatively for antisocial behavior? If so, what are the implications for the development and persistence of antisocial behavior? We investigated assortative mating for antisocial behavior and its correlates in a sample of 360 couples from Dunedin, New Zealand. We found substantial assortative mating for self-reports of antisocial behavior per se and for self-reports of couple members' tendencies to associate with antisocial peers (0.54 on average). Perceptions about the likelihood of social sanctions for antisocial behavior (e.g., being caught by the authorities or losing the respect of one's family) showed moderate assortative mating (0.32 on average). However, assortative mating for personality traits related to antisocial behavior was low (0.15 on average). These findings suggest that, whereas assortative mating for many individual-difference variables (such as personality traits) is low, assortative mating for actual antisocial behaviors is substantial. We conclude that future family studies of antisocial behavior should endeavor to measure and understand the influence of assortative mating. In addition, we outline a testable behavior-genetic model for the development of antisocial behavior, in which genes and environments promoting or discouraging antisocial behavior become concentrated within families (due to assortative mating), giving rise to widely varying individual developmental trajectories that are, nevertheless, similar within families.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

The structure and stability of common mental disorders (DSM-III-R): a longitudinal-epidemiological study.

The latent structure and stability of 10 common mental disorders were examined in a birth cohort at ages 18 and 21. A 2-factor model, in which some disorders were presumed to reflect internalizing problems and others were presumed to reflect externalizing problems, provided a more optimal fit to the data than either a 1- or a 4-factor model. To a significant extent, persons in the sample retained their relative positions on the latent factors across the 3-year period from age 18 to age 21. Results offer potential clarification of the meaning of comorbidity in psychopathology research by suggesting that comorbidity may results from common mental disorders being reliable, covariant indicators of stable, underlying "core psychopathological processes."

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Personality traits are differentially linked to mental disorders: a multitrait-multidiagnosis study of an adolescent birth cohort.

The authors assessed the relation between personality and mental disorder in a representative birth cohort of 897 men and women. Personality was assessed at age 18 with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; A. Tellegen, 1982), and 4 types of mental disorder (affective, anxiety, substance dependence, and conduct disorder) were assessed at ages 15, 18 and 21, using age-appropriate standardized diagnostic interviews. All disorder groups had MPQ profiles that were very different from those of controls. When comorbid cases were excluded, fewer significant differences between diagnosed cases and controls remained. Relations between personality and mental disorder were not affected by the measurement of disorder as continuous versus discrete, gender, or the age at which disorder was diagnosed. Relations between personality and mental disorders appear to be robust, and individual personality differences may be particularly relevant to understanding the most severe (comorbid) expressions of psychopathology.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Delay of gratification, psychopathology, and personality: is low self-control specific to externalizing problems?

We assessed the delay of gratification behavior of 428 twelve- and thirteen-year-old boys, half of whom were known to manifest symptoms of behavioral disturbance. Consistent with the hypothesis that low self-control is a risk factor specific to externalizing (aggressive and delinquent) disorders, boys who showed signs of externalizing disorders tended to seek immediate gratification in a laboratory task more often than both nondisordered boys and boys who showed signs of internalizing (anxious and depressed) disorders. In addition, children who were able to delay immediate gratification were described by their mothers as ego controlled, ego resilient, conscientious, open to experience, and agreeable. These results suggest that poor delay of gratification may be one of a select number of specific risk factors for externalizing disorder, and that good delay of gratification is linked to multiple adaptive tendencies in early adolescence.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Personality traits are linked to crime among men and women: evidence from a birth cohort.

Is there a relationship between personality and criminal behavior? We addressed this question in a representative birth cohort of 862 male and female 18-year-olds. Personality was assessed with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). The MPQ measures 10 relatively independent personality traits and was not designed to identify offenders. Delinquency was assessed via 3 data sources: self-reports, informant reports, and official records. Variable-centered analyses revealed that MPQ scales indexing negative emotionality and behavioral constraint were consistent predictors of delinquency across the 3 data sources. Person-centered analyses revealed that youths abstaining from delinquency were uniquely characterized by low interpersonal potency. Youths involved in extensive delinquency were uniquely characterized by feelings of alienation, lack of social closeness, and risk taking. Advances in understanding criminal behavior can be made through research that places the personality-delinquency link in a developmental context.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1970

Tilorone hydrochloride: mode of action.

An antiviral serum component is found in mice treated orally with tilorone hydrochloride. The active material fulfills sufficient biological criteria to be classified as an interferon.

Administration, Oral↗