Ricerc@Sapienza

Although previous research has corroborated the independent contributions of parent personality and adolescent temperament in predicting adolescents’ externalizing behavior problems (EXT), few studies have examined their joint contribution to predict EXT in adolescence. In the present longitudinal study, first we examined the developmental trajectory of EXT from ages 12 to 14, and, next, we investigated the joint effects of mothers’ irritability and adolescents’ inhibitory control (IC) in predicting the developmental trajectory of EXT.

The present study examined the extent to which individual differences in personality that have been previously associated with aggression in non-clinical subjects (Caprara et al., 2013, 2014) account for aggression among adolescents referred to psychiatric services with diagnosis within the externalizing spectrum (i.e., conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).