A Personality Inventory for Children Profile Typology of Children and Adolescents: II. Classification Rules and Specific Behavior Correlates

Abstract

We sought to refine the utility of an objective, cluster analytically derived Personality Inventory for Children (PIC) typology of emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children and adolescents constructed in a previous study. Using a sample of 1,333 cases referred for mental health services, we constructed a series of rules to classify the PIC profiles of individual children into this PIC typology. These rules classified over 90% of all cases and yielded PIC profile groups that differed in child age and sex. In addition, specific behavior correlates of each PIC profile type–as reported separately by parents, school teachers, and clinicians–were identified. PIC profile types obtained an average of about 40 replicated behavior correlates consistent with problems suggested by their respective mean PIC profiles. These results supported further development of this PIC classification system as an empirically based alternative to traditional diagnostic labels.