Map of affective and maladaptive personality vulnerabilities in emotionally immature adolescents.

Adolescence is a developmental period in which affective reactivity, heightened sensitivity to social contexts, and still-maturing self-regulatory systems can increase vulnerability to maladaptive patterns of functioning. However, adolescent screening and research often consider emotional functioning, self-evaluation, and maladaptive personality traits in isolation, which limits integrative clinical decision support. This study proposes a clinically oriented "vulnerability map" that integrates (a) emotional maturity (as affect-cognition integration and frustration tolerance), (b) an affective self-evaluation profile (self-esteem, self-depreciation, infatuation), and (c) maladaptive personality trait domains (PID-5). Two complementary studies were conducted. Study 1 (cross-sectional; N = 250 adolescents aged 16-18 years) examined associations between emotional maturity, affective self-evaluation facets, and PID-5 trait domains using Spearman correlations with 95% confidence intervals. Emotional maturity was negatively associated with all five PID-5 domains (ρ = -0.29 to -0.35) and with self-depreciation (ρ = -0.22), and positively associated with self-esteem (ρ = 0.21). Study 2 (exploratory non-randomized pilot controlled pre-post design; experimental group n = 12, control group n = 12) evaluated a 5-month paternal-involvement intervention targeting co-regulation and adolescent self-regulation skills. The pilot results suggested patterns of change consistent with reduced vulnerability, but should be interpreted with extreme caution given the small sample and lack of randomization. The resulting vulnerability map is presented as a transparent, theory-driven heuristic framework (not a validated data-driven classification model) to guide assessment priorities and generate hypotheses for future person-centered validation studies.