The Development of the General Factor of Psychopathology ‘p Factor’ Through Childhood and Adolescence

Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that the structure of psychopathology may be usefully represented in terms of a general factor of psychopathology (p-factor) capturing variance common to a broad range of symptoms transcending diagnostic domains in addition to specific factors capturing variance common to smaller subsets of more closely related symptoms. Little is known about how the general co-morbidity captured by this p-factor develops and whether general co-morbidity increases or decreases over childhood and adolescence. We evaluated two competing hypotheses: 1) dynamic mutualism which predicts growth in general co-morbidity and associated p-factor strength over time and 2) p-differentiation which predicts that manifestations of liabilities towards psychopathology become increasingly specific over time. Data came from the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths (z-proso), a longitudinal study of a normative sample (approx. 50 % male) measured at 8 time points from ages 7 to 15. We operationalised general co-morbidity as p-factor strength in a bi-factor model and used omega hierarchical to track how this changed over development. In contrast to the predictions of both dynamic mutualism and p-differentiation, p-factor strength remained relatively constant over the studied period suggesting that such processes do not govern the interplay between psychopathological symptoms during this phase of development. Future research should focus on earlier phases of development and on factors that maintain the consistency of symptom-general covariation across this period.

The structure of psychopathology in adolescence and its common personality and cognitive correlates.

“…Findings demonstrated that a general psychopathology (P) factor can be modeled in this community adolescent sample, as well as either (a) two specific externalizing and internalizing factors or (b) three specific ADHD/CD/ODD, substance use, and internalizing factors, providing further support for a spectrum and latent trait model of psychopathology (e.g., Caspi et al, 2014; Lahey et al, 2012, 2015; Murray et al, 2016). This study contributed to the literature by extending previous bifactor models to include eating disorders and a wider range of substance use symptoms.…”

“…Remarkably, these studies demonstrated that a general psychopathology factor (or P factor, as coined by Caspi et al, 2014) can be reliably replicated across samples and psychopathology disorders/symptoms, as well as developmental periods. Indeed, Murray, Eisner, and Ribeaud (2016) recently demonstrated that the P factor remained stable from age 7 to 16 years. Finally, these recent studies have also provided initial insights into the nature of the shared variance across psychopathology.…”

Co-occurring internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in childhood and adolescence: a network approach

“…However, due to strong associations between the dimensions themselves, a general psychopathological factor, p, has been proposed to explain the co-occurrence of virtually all psychiatric symptoms and disorders [6,7]. Although this general factor has been supported in both adult [6,7] and child samples [8,9], a consistent interpretation of the p-factor has so far proven elusive [6][7][8][9][10][11]. The most popular interpretation posits that p reflects a shared aetiological factor, or set of factors (e.g.…”

“…The most popular interpretation posits that p reflects a shared aetiological factor, or set of factors (e.g. genetic vulnerability, personality, environmental factors) that predispose individuals to any and all forms of psychopathology [11].…”

Screening for Psychopathology Using the Three Factors Model of the Structure of Psychopathology: A Modified Form of GAIN Short Screener

“…Importantly, the general psychopathology factor showed a significant Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) heritability of 38% (Neumann et al, 2016). Most of the studies above used DSM oriented scales; however, the general psychopathology factor was also replicated in studies using problem scales/items in general population samples (Laceulle, Vollebergh, & Ormel, 2015;Murray, Eisner, & Ribeaud, 2016). These new advances in discovering the component of psychopathology structure gave us an opportunity to develop psychopathology screening tool for I.…”