| Summary: | The diagnosis of personality pathology in children and adolescents has increasingly
become an area of interest in study and literature internationally. However, this topic
is a much debated one among professionals whereby the validity and utility of this
diagnosis has been questioned. This paper explores these arguments. The research
follows that of two previous studies conducted in Johannesburg hospitals which
found a prevalence of personality pathology being noted on Axis II of adolescent
case files, specifically the Cluster B diagnoses.
This study investigated Psychologists and Psychiatrists opinions on what symptoms
are being seen in children and adolescents that warrant the notation of personality
pathology on Axis II. This study focussed on the symptomology profile of the
Borderline, Narcissistic and Antisocial diagnoses, differences in symptom notation
between children and adolescents, and respondents opinions on the applicability of
the DSM-IV-TR to personality disorder assessment in this age demographic, as well
as whether or not professionals in this study preferred to note symptoms individually
or as relevant to Cluster B presentations overall. A questionnaire was constructed
and Descriptive statistics were used. The research questions were tested using
frequency counts, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and covariance (ANCOVA). The
findings of this study demonstrate that professionals feel more able to make note of
personality symptomatology in adolescents than they do in children, and that the
notation of Borderline symptoms by respondents exceeded that of any other group.
Furthermore, respondents more frequently endorsed the use of individual symptoms
for each group, over that of using a general Cluster B notation and finally, it was
found that the majority of participants believe adjustments should be made to future
revisions of the DSM-IV-TR.
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