When the kids aren’t alright: diverging trajectories in adolescent psychopathology
Keynote by Odilia Laceulle (Utrecht University)

Adolescence represents a critical period for the onset of many mental disorders. The way young people deal with adolescent specific developmental tasks might partly explain the development of psychopathology. At the same time, failing developmental tasks can insufficiently explain why the differences between adolescents increase over time. An individual differences approach – personality in particular – may contribute to our understanding regarding these diverging trajectories. In this talk I will a) provide a brief overview of the literature on developmental psychopathology during adolescence, b) present studies on the joint effects of personality and developmental tasks on adolescent psychopathology and c) discuss how trajectories towards psychopathology may become more pronounced over time as a result of increasing differences in personality.