Applicability of personality disorder criteria to hospitalized adolescents: Evaluation of internal consistency and criterion overlap

Objective: The authors examined the applicability of personality disorder c riteria to adolescent inpatients by evaluating internal consistency and cri terion overlap, Method: Thirty-eight adolescents and 28 adults were assesse d with the Personality Disorder Examination. Within-category cohesiveness ( internal consistency) of the criteria was evaluated by examining intercrite rion correlations as well as coefficient alpha. In addition, between-catego ry criterion overlap was evaluated by examining "intercategory" intercriter ion correlations between all pairs of disorders. Separate analyses were con ducted for adolescents and adults, and the groups were compared. Results: I nternal consistency appeared to be lower in adolescents, as measured by int ercriterion correlation and coefficient alpha, with the largest differences being identified for most cluster B disorders. Intercategory analysis indi cated that criterion overlap may be greater among adolescents. Conclusions: Overall, this psychometric analysis suggests that there may be limitations to the DSMs approach to categorizing personality disorders. For both adole scents and adults, modest degrees of within-category cohesiveness (internal consistency) and between-category criterion overlap were observed. Compara tively, personality disorder criteria in adolescents tended to have lower i nternal consistency and less discriminant validity. The data raise question s about the construct validity of these disorders-or the applicability of t hese criteria-within this age group.