Linking antisocial behavior, substance use, and personality: An integrative quantitative model of the adult externalizing spectrum.

2007/11/01 by Robert F. Krueger, Kristian E. Markon, Christopher J. Patrick +2 · 1 voice · 3 citations
Psychology · #Personality Disorders and Psychopathology #Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development #Personality Traits and Psychology

paper · doi:10.1037/0021-843x.116.4.645

openalex publication_date 2007/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

Antisocial behavior, substance use, and impulsive and aggressive personality traits often co-occur, forming a coherent spectrum of personality and psychopathology. In the current research, the authors developed a novel quantitative model of this spectrum. Over 3 waves of iterative data collection, 1,787 adult participants selected to represent a range across the externalizing spectrum provided extensive data about specific externalizing behaviors. Statistical methods such as item response theory and semiparametric factor analysis were used to model these data. The model and assessment instrument that emerged from the research shows how externalizing phenomena are organized hierarchically and cover a wide range of individual differences. The authors discuss the utility of this model for framing research on the correlates and the etiology of externalizing phenomena.

Citations

• A Psychobiological Model of Temperament and Character
• Distinguishing Between Latent Classes and Continuous Factors: Resolution by Maximum Likelihood?
• On the Relationship between the Higher-Order Factor Model and the Hierarchical Factor Model
• Comparison of five rules for determining the number of components to retain.
• The Structure of Common Mental Disorders
• Diagnostic categories or dimensions? A question for the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders--fifth edition.
• Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy.

Cited by

• Testing Criterion Validity in Hierarchical Models of Psychopathology: Comparison of Latent-Variable and Factor-Score Approaches
• Beyond comorbidity: Toward a dimensional and hierarchical approach to understanding psychopathology across the life span
• Early adolescent patterns of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana polysubstance use and young adult substance use outcomes in a nationally representative sample

Discussions

• The current standard measure of meanness in psychopathy was developed from the callous-aggression items of the Externalizing Spectrum Inventory, an inventory designed to assess the broad range of exte [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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• Development and validation of the Subtypes of Antisocial Behavior Questionnaire