The Structure of Psychopathology in Adolescence

Abstract

This study aimed to replicate a study by Caspi and colleagues, which proposed that the structure of psychopathology is characterized by a general psychopathology factor, in addition to smaller internalizing and externalizing factors. Our study expanded the approach of the original by using continuous adolescent data and testing additional models, including both self- and parent-reported data, to bolster the robustness of the findings. Our findings indicate that the structure of psychopathology is best characterized by a model including a general factor, in addition to smaller internalizing and externalizing factors. These results emphasize the importance of this model for understanding the structure of psychopathology. Given the increasing emphasis on the importance of, and need for, replication, the overall evidence of a general factor seems rather robust.

Risk and protective factors for comorbid internalizing and externalizing problems among economically disadvantaged African American youth

“…Relevant for latent variable modeling, parcels from both internalizing and externalizing items showed high factor loadings on the latent co-morbid factor, suggesting that a substantial portion of variation across internalizing and externalizing problems was attributed to a shared underlying factor. This result is consistent with the growing body of evidence suggesting high factor loadings of internalizing and externalizing problems on a common factor (Caspi et al, 2014;Keiley et al, 2003;Laceulle et al, 2015;Lahey et al, 2011Lahey et al, , 2012Olino et al, 2014). Previous studies differed substantially from each other and from the present study, in terms of participant race (predominantly White versus African American), age range (from 3 to 38 years), and measures of psychopathology (ranging from clinically diagnosed DSM disorders to quantitative measures using self-report), yet all studies found a common factor underlying a broad spectrum of internalizing and externalizing problems with high factor loadings.…”

“…Poverty is a documented risk factor for both internalizing and externalizing problems (Yoshikawa, Aber, & Beardslee, 2012). Thus, it is also possible that chronic exposure to poverty and its related risk factors could more commonly precipitate the development of comorbid problems rather than a specific type of problem (Compas & Andreotti, 2013).This study also found no correlation between the specific internalizing and externalizing factors, which differs from the negative correlation sometimes reported in studies using a bifactor model structure (Caspi et al, 2014;Laceulle et al, 2015). This finding may be due to differences in how symptoms loaded onto the specific and comorbid factors in the population we targeted compared to other studies.…”

“…Based on previous results in other populations, we expected the comorbid models to have substantially better model fit than the internalizing-externalizing two-factor model. In addition, because prior studies found negative correlations between the specific internalizing and externalizing factors (Caspi et al, 2014;Laceulle et al, 2015), we aimed to test whether a similar negative correlation can be found among the present sample.The second goal was to examine the impact of multiple types of stressors on the latent factors underlying internalizing and externalizing problems. These analyses aim to clarify inconsistent findings between stressors and internalizing/externalizing problems among African American youth in prior studies.…”

“…These models, although varying in what the general factor is labeled, all use the same statistical modeling technique (a bifactor model; Gibbons & Hedeker, 1992) and all tap into the same underlying issue: that there is a latent factor underlying the commonly observed comorbidity of internalizing and externalizing problems (Caspi et al, 2014;Keiley, Lofthouse, Bates, Dodge, & Pettit, 2003;Laceulle, Vollebergh, & Ormel, 2015;Lahey et al, 2011Lahey et al, , 2012Olino, Dougherty, Bufferd, Carlson, & Klein, 2014 Caspi et al, 2014;Laceulle et al, 2015). Of note, this latent structure is found among adults using DSM diagnoses (Caspi et al, 2014;Lahey et al, 2012) as well as among children and adolescents using self-or parent-reported questionnaires, such as the Youth Self-Report (YSR; Achenbach, 1991) and the Child Behavior Checklist (Laceulle et al, 2015;Lahey et al, 2011;Olino et al, 2014).One substantial gap in this emerging literature is the lack of attention paid to minority and high-risk populations. Although early reports using latent variable modeling used nationally representative samples, it is unknown whether the latent structure of internalizing and externalizing problems is the same among groups that are typically underrepresented in such samples.…”

What we have changed our minds about: Part 1. Borderline personality disorder as a limitation of resilience

“…A higher p factor score was associated with ‘more life impairment, greater familiality, worse developmental histories, and more compromised early-life brain function’ ([3], p. 131). In the meantime, several studies have replicated this higher-order p factor [8–11]. Importantly, the p factor concept may thus also explain why discovering isolated causes, consequences or biomarkers and specific, tailored treatments for psychiatric disorders has proved so elusive for the field [3].…”