Understanding how personality problems begin in adolescents
Testing Developmental Mechanisms of Personality Impairment in Youth
This project looks at brain, social, and self-related responses in young teens to find early signs of serious personality problems.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Pennsylvania State Univ Hershey Med Ctr NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Hershey, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11237152 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
From your perspective, researchers will study adolescents to see how difficulties with identity and relationships (called level of personality functioning) show up in behavior, self-report, and brain/body responses. They will measure how young people react to social acceptance and how they process self-relevant information using questionnaires, behavioral tasks, and neurophysiological recordings. The team will compare these patterns with other concerns like anxiety, depression, and ADHD to identify what is specific to emerging personality impairment. Results are intended to reveal early markers that could guide better prevention or treatment for teens at risk.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are pre-teens and adolescents with emerging identity or relationship difficulties or behavioral concerns, including youth with ADHD, anxiety, or mood symptoms.
Not a fit: Adults with long-standing, established personality disorders or people without any identity or interpersonal problems are unlikely to get direct benefit from this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help detect teens at high risk earlier and point to new ways to intervene before severe personality disorders develop.
How similar studies have performed: Previous research links social processing to personality problems, but neurophysiological studies in early adolescence are limited, so this approach is relatively novel.
Where this research is happening
Hershey, United States
- Pennsylvania State Univ Hershey Med Ctr — Hershey, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Babinski, Dara E — Pennsylvania State Univ Hershey Med Ctr
- Study coordinator: Babinski, Dara E
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.