Marcel A. G. van Aken

Utrecht University | UU · Department of Psychology

Youth with personality pathology are at a greater risk of developing broader psychopathology and experiencing poorer life outcomes in general. Therefore, detecting personality problems, specifically features of borderline personality disorder (BPD), provides opportunities for early intervention. In this study, we investigated the incremental value...

Introduction: This study aimed at examining the concurrent associations between stressful life events and borderline personality disorder (BPD) features in a clinical sample of young people. The moderating role of parental support and self-esteem was investigated (i.e., stress buffering). In a subsample, short term changes in BPD features were exam...

Personality functioning, general psychopathology, and developmental milestones achievement are critical domains in the field of young people’s mental health; however, no prior research has considered these variables jointly or examined the temporal dynamics between them. To fill these gaps, the present study aimed to investigate the longitudinal as...

Background Self-harm in young people is a public health concern connected with severe mental health problems, such as personality pathology. Currently, there are no specific evidence-based interventions available for young people who self-harm. Therefore, we developed PRe-Intervention Monitoring of Affect and Relationships in Youth (PRIMARY), a sma...

Narrative identity, as an integral element of personality, has gained increased attention for understanding personality pathology. In this study, associations between narrative identity characteristics (i.e., event valence, theme, contextual coherence, thematic coherence, self-event connection valence, agency, and communion) and personality patholo...

Despite broad interest in how children and youth cope with stress and how others can support their coping, this is the first Handbook to consolidate the many theories and large bodies of research that contribute to the study of the development of coping. The Handbook's goal is field building - it brings together theory and research from across the...

The co-occurrence between delinquency and depression in adolescence is well-documented. However, Psychology (Failure model and Acting out Model) and Criminology (Strain Theory) theories are divided on the potential longitudinal link between these two behaviors and empirical studies show mixed findings. The present 3-wave longitudinal study tested t...

This study aimed to examine Dispositional, Adaptational, and Environmental (DAE) variables at the intersection of adaptive and maladaptive personality development as a conceptual replication of the DAE-model (Asendorpf & Motti-Stefanidi, European Journal of Personality, 32(3), 167-185, 2018). In a community sample of adolescents (N = 463; Mage = 13...

This longitudinal two‐wave cross‐national study investigated whether intentions, friends' substance use, and parent‐adolescent substance‐use specific communication predict adolescent alcohol and cannabis use 1 year later, while estimating reversed links. The temporal order between these two substances was also examined. We used multi‐group cross‐la...

People in economically advantaged nations tend to evaluate their life as more positive overall and report greater well-being than people in less advantaged nations. But how does positivity manifest in the daily life experiences of individuals around the world? The present study asked 15,244 college students from 62 nations, in 42 languages, to desc...

Communicating online via social media has proven to facilitate disclosure of intimate topics and can therefore be helpful in the development of intimate relationships. However, for youth with borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms, it may be more difficult to know when, what, and to whom to disclose (i.e., effective disclosure) in online co...

Introduction We propose that a dimensional, multilayered perspective is well suited to study maladaptive personality development in youth. Such a perspective can help understand pathways to personality pathology and contribute to its early detection. The research project ‘APOLO’ (a Dutch language acronym for Adolescents and their Personality Develo...

Background Impaired interpersonal functioning has been highlighted as a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Adolescence and young adulthood form important developmental stages within both the emergence of BPD and the development of interpersonal functioning, which takes place mostly in relationships with parents and friends. This...

Background: Impaired interpersonal functioning has been highlighted as a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Adolescence and young adulthood form important developmental stages within both the emergence of BPD and the development of interpersonal functioning, which takes place mostly in relationships with parents and friends. Thi...

In three studies, we tried to create a novel scale within the existing Big Five Inventory 2 (BFI-2) structure to measure prosocial vs. antisocial personality traits, like the Dark Triad and honesty-humility. While our new scale converged strongly with dark personality and honesty-humility scales, we failed to establish sufficient discriminant valid...

This study investigated how parenting behaviors and child committed compliance predicted internalization of rules and externalizing behaviors throughout early childhood. Participants were 95 Chinese mother-child dyads. Maternal respect for autonomy and negative control were observed in free-plays at 14 and 25 months. Toddlers’ committed compliance...

Background: Parenting an adolescent with borderline personality disorder (BPD) features can be challenging due to, for example, emotional dysregulation, impulsivity and/or self-destructive behavior. Parents confronted with challenging behavior of their child, may experience less parental-self-efficacy (PSE). Subsequently this lower PSE might stren...

Abstract What does it mean to be happy? The vast majority of cross-cultural studies on happiness have employed a Western-origin, or “WEIRD” measure of happiness that conceptualizes it as a self-centered (or “independent”), high-arousal emotion. However, research from East�ern cultures, particularly Japan, conceptualizes happiness as including an in...

Objective The current exploratory study sought to examine dispositional optimism, or the general expectation for positive outcomes, around the world. Method Dispositional optimism and possible correlates were assessed across 61 countries (N = 15,185; mean age = 21.92; 77% female). Mean‐level differences in optimism were computed along with their r...

Social neurodevelopmental imbalance models posit that peer presence causes heightened adolescent risk-taking particularly during early adolescence. Evolutionary theory suggests that these effects would be most pronounced in males. However, the small but growing number of experimental studies on peer presence effects in adolescent risky decision-mak...

In 2019, the Governing Council of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) adopted a Policy on Scientific Integrity, Transparency, and Openness (SRCD, 2019a) and accompanying Author Guidelines on Scientific Integrity and Openness in Child Development (SRCD, 2019b). In this issue, a companion article (Gennetian, Tamis‐LeMonda, & Frank) d...

Personality disorders as classified in DSM‑5 are common in children and adolescents. Limitations such as the mediocre reliability, stability and specificity of the categorical DSM‑5 classifications are a problem for the early identification of personality problems and they underline the importance of a dimensional perspective. In this article, we p...

A dimensional perspective on personality pathology in which trait assessment plays an important role has been proposed in the DSM-5, as represented in the PID-5 measure. In an attempt to increase the feasibility of the personality disorder (PD) assessment process, Maples and colleagues constructed a reduced, 100-item version of the PID-5. This stud...

The dual-pathway model posits that narcissism can both benefit and compromise popularity, depending upon whether narcissists’ assertive or adversarial interpersonal tendencies surface in social interaction. A 5-wave longitudinal study followed Dutch adolescents (N = 322, 53% female, Mage = 12.2) who transitioned from primary into secondary school a...

This series of studies investigated whether the good psychometric properties of the English version of the Big Five Inventory–2 (BFI–2) could be replicated using its Dutch adaptation. Second, it aimed to further examine the predictive validity of both the Big Five domain and the more specific facet scales of the BFI–2 in a large and representative...

BACKGROUND For a long time there was controversy and reservations with regards to diagnosing borderline personality disorder (BPD) under the age of eighteen. Progress in scientific knowledge has shown that adolescence is a key phase in the understanding of the development of the disorder. AIM: To contribute to the understanding of the developmental...

Background As borderline personality disorder (BPD) is increasingly considered a lifespan developmental disorder, we need to focus on risk factors and precursors in the developmental pathways to BPD, in order to enable early detection and intervention. Within this developmental pathway, adolescence is a crucial phase in the light of the manifestati...

Social learning theories assume that delinquent peer norms and/or peer pressure are the components of delinquent peer socialization that lead to subsequent adolescent delinquency. However, these specific peer influences are rarely investigated. Moreover, social learning theories such as coercion theory posit that parenting behaviors also play an im...

This study used a combination of microlevel observation data and longitudinal questionnaire data to study the relationship between differential reactivity and differential susceptibility, guided by three questions: (a) Does a subset of children exist that is both more likely to respond with increasingly negative emotions to increasingly negative em...

Objective What is gained by having others report on one’s personality? Research on adult samples has suggested that informant reports are especially informative regarding traits that are highly visible and evaluative (i.e., socially desirable/undesirable instead of neutral), such as Openness, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness. This 18‐year longi...

Although studies have shown links between minority stress and mental health (e.g., Meyer, 2003), there is little research explaining this association. Research has suggested that adequate coping skills might protect youth from the negative impact of stress (Compas et al., 2017). Thus, we aimed to examine: 1) whether associations between minority st...

In this study, it was analysed whether trajectories of change in symptom distress could be identified in a clinical group of late adolescents with personality pathology. Furthermore, it was examined whether maladaptive personality traits and relations with parents were predictive of following one of these trajectories. Three latent classes emerged...

The inclusion of a dimensional trait model of personality pathology in DSM-5 creates new opportunities for research on developmental antecedents of personality pathology. The traits of this model can be measured with the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5), initially developed for adults, but also demonstrating validity in adolescents. The pres...

A number of studies have evaluated associations between parenting practices, adolescent self-control, and adolescent antisocial behavior. Yet, few studies have examined associations between these constructs in early childhood or examined the extent to which both maternal and paternal self-control shapes them. To address these gaps, the current stud...

Background: Early childhood self-control and parenting are suggested to play key roles in the development of child problem behavior. The current study aims to 1) replicate earlier work by examining the unique and combined effects of child self-control and parenting on child problem behavior and 2) extend earlier work by including both mother and f...

The authors review current knowledge on adolescent community service and present a model explaining community service benefits. Community service combined with reflection predicts positive academic, personal, social, and civic outcomes. To explain this broad range of positive effects, the authors present the IMAR community service model. The model...

In this longitudinal multiinformant study negative emotionality and sensory processing sensitivity were compared as susceptibility markers among kindergartners. Participating children (N = 264, 52.9% boys) were Dutch kindergartners (Mage = 4.77, SD = 0.60), followed across three waves, spaced seven months apart. Results show that associations betwe...

Research on how dark personality traits develop and relate to risky behaviors and family relations during adolescence is scarce. This study used a person-oriented approach to examine (a) whether distinct groups of adolescents could be identified based on their developmental profiles of callous-unemotional (CU), grandiose manipulative (GM), and dysf...

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been proposed to be a key mechanism underlying the link between adversity and mental health, but longitudinal studies on adversity and HPA-axis functioning are scarce. Here, we studied adversity-driven changes in HPA-axis functioning during adolescence (N = 141). HPA-axis functioning (basal cortisol...

High amounts of early child care have sometimes been linked to higher levels of behaviour problems, while high‐quality child care has more often been related to fewer behaviour problems and more social competence. The current study investigated whether the level of centre emotional and behavioural support (child care quality) interacted with the am...

The present study investigated the association between Borderline Personality characteristics (BP characteristics) and life satisfaction in a sample of 111 girls and 144 boys between the ages of 15 and 19 years. Mediation and moderation effects of rejection sensitivity and adolescents’ social relations with their parents and friends on this associa...

Comprehensive sexuality education and sexuality education that is inclusive to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth is thought to educate and support youth in their social relations. Despite the obligation for Dutch schools to cover sexuality education in their curricula, including the topic of sexual diversity,...

While a large body of research has investigated cultural differences in behavior, the typical study assesses a single behavioral outcome, in a single context, compared across two countries. The current study compared a broad array of behaviors across 21 countries (N=5,522). Participants described their behavior at 7:00 p.m. the previous evening usi...

Personality similarity between parent and offspring has been suggested to play an important role in offspring’s development of externalizing problems. Nonetheless, much remains unknown regarding the nature of this association. This study aimed to investigate the effects of parent–offspring similarity at different levels of personality traits, compa...

The present study investigated whether the length of interbirth intervals between first- and secondborn children in a North American middle-class sample could be explained by paternal and alloparental support and firstborn children’s gender. The sample consisted of 225 families in which mothers were expecting their 2nd child. Parents reported on pa...

Achieving a clear view of one’s personality is a challenging but crucial developmental task during adolescence, which has enduring influences. This task might be harder if significant others see individuals differently from how the adolescents see themselves. Supporting this, the looking-glass-self theory suggests that significant others constitute...

Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the initiation and peak of many harmful risk-taking behaviors such as smoking, which is among the most addictive and deadliest behaviors. Generic metatheories like the theory of triadic influence (TTI) suggest that interrelated risk factors across multiple domains (i.e., intrapersonal and social/environmental)...

This article presents the findings from the first part of the Project STARS study on adolescent romantic and sexual development using a biopsychosocial perspective. With five empirical studies, the role of individual factors (personality, pubertal development) and social context (peers, sexualized media) for the romantic and sexual development are...

The current study investigated the antecedents and consequences of peer-rated intelligence in a longitudinal round robin design, following previously unacquainted members of small student work groups. Results indicated that peer-reputations of intelligence were reliable, stable and weakly correlated with objective intelligence. Bias was shown by co...

Research Findings: Drawing from a Dutch sample of 113 Dutch children (M age = 37 months, SD = 3.5) from 37 early care and education classrooms (19 child care centers and 18 preschools), this study examined whether the relation between classroom emotional and behavioral support and children’s observed social integration and positive mood in a play s...

Several models of individual differences in environmental sensitivity postulate increased sensitivity of some individuals to either stressful (diathesis-stress), supportive (vantage sensitivity), or both environments (differential susceptibility). In this meta-analysis we examine whether children vary in sensitivity to parenting depending on their...

This longitudinal study focused on clarifying the direction of effects between social anxiety and victimization in a community-based sample. In addition, we studied the moderating effect of gender on this association. A total of 1,649 children (45% boys, approximately 12 years old) of 65 secondary-school classes participated in the study. Self-repo...

Paper presentation, In S. Humberg, & S. Wurst (Chair), Self-knowledge and social outcomes: Intra- and interpersonal consequences of accurate self-perceptions. Symposium conducted at the European Biennial Conference on Personality, Romania.

Objective: The purpose of this research is to quantitatively compare everyday situational experience around the world. Method: 5447 members of college communities in 20 countries, recruited by local collaborators, provided data via a website in 14 languages. Using the 89 items of the Riverside Situational Qsort (RSQ), participants described the sit...

Personality developmental studies typically rely on single reporter data, while multi-informant studies are rare. In two longitudinal studies, the present investigation examined inter-judge differences in the development of the Big Five personality traits from childhood to young adulthood. Study 1 investigated personality development as judged by t...

Background: This study investigated relations between personality pathology and mentalizing capacities reflected in social information processing (SIP) of adolescents. Sampling and methods: 96 adolescent outpatients completed a structured interview regarding SIP. Their clinicians completed a checklist based on DSM-IV, assessing severity of perso...

Social relationships are considered highly important throughout adolescence (Kenny et al., 2013), both for the further development and consolidation of identity, social roles, and skills. The schizotypal personality disorder (STPD) has a strong negative impact on these relationships with both parents and peers (Cramer et al., 2006; Hengartner et al...

. One of the most common personality disorders among adolescents and young adults is the Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). The objective of current study was to assess three questionnaires that can reliably screen for BPD in adolescents and young adults (N = 53): the McLean Screening Instrument for BPD (MSI-BPD; Zanarini et al., 2003), the Per...

In this longitudinal study, we examined whether children differ in their susceptibility to harsh and responsive parenting as reflected in their externalizing and prosocial behaviour two years later. We focused on three potential susceptibility markers assessed during middle childhood: Negative emotionality, impulsivity, and effortful control. Parti...

The current study investigated whether the relation between child care quality and children's socio-emotional behavior depended on children's affective self-regulation skills and gender. Participants were 545 children (Mage=27 months) from 60 center-based child care centers in the Netherlands. Multi-level analyses showed that children with low affe...

Temperamental differences are associated with subsequent stressful life events, a phenomenon that has in part been attributed to evocation. However, we remain ignorant about the mechanisms that mediate this process. In the current paper, we test whether differences in 'perceived relationship affection' accounted for part of the prospective associat...

In this longitudinal study, we examined whether personality traits (parent-rated Big Five personality traits) render some adolescents more susceptible than others to delinquent behaviour of friends, predicting rank-order changes in adolescents' self-reported delinquent behaviour. We examine susceptibility to both perceived (reported by adolescents)...

This study gives an overview of Project STARS (Studies on Trajectories of Adolescent Relationships and Sexuality), a four-wave longitudinal study of 1297 Dutch adolescents. First, the sample, measures and four sub-projects are described. Second, hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine how key variables from the individual domain...

The present meta-analysis studies the relations of pubertal timing and status with sexual behavior and sexual risk behavior among youth aged 10.5-22.4 years. We included biological sex, age, and ethnicity as potential moderators. Four databases were searched for studies (published between 1980 and 2012) on the relation between pubertal timing or st...

Het leren omgaan met seksualiteit, lichamelijkheid, en intimiteit hoort bij een gezonde ontwikkeling. Intieme relaties en seksualiteit zijn voor jongeren zelf een belangrijk thema. De ervaringen die ze opdoen op dit gebied leggen een belangrijke basis voor latere intieme contacten en relaties. Ondanks dit is seksualiteit bij kinderen en adolescente...

De seksuele carriere van Nederlandse en Vlaamse jongeren.- Eerste geslachtsgemeenschap op jonge leeftijd: hoe wordt dit beleefd en wat beınvloedt deze beleving?.- Vroeg seksueel debuut in Nederland: een longitudinale studie naar de rol van individuele kenmerken, opvoeding en leeftijdgenoten.- De rol van persoonlijkheid in de ontwikkeling van seksue...

This study examined whether the development of sexualized media consumption and permissive sexual attitudes would be more strongly interrelated when adolescents perceived sexualized media images as highly realistic. We used data from a three-wave longitudinal sample of 444 Dutch adolescents aged 13–16 years at baseline. Results from parallel proces...

Current labor market entrants face an increasingly challenging job search process. Effective guidance of job seekers requires identification of relevant job search skills. Self-control (i.e., the ability to control one’s thoughts, actions, and response tendencies in view of a long-term goal, such as finding employment) is assumed to be one such rel...