The Factor Structure of Anxiety and Depressive Disorders in a Sample of Clinic-Referred Adolescents

Abstract

The current study used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine the factor structure of anxiety and depressive disorders in a sample of clinic-referred adolescents, aged between 12 and 18 years, for diagnoses based on parent (N = 655; male = 441) and adolescent (N = 626; male = 417) interviews. Three models were examined: a 1-factor model, with all anxiety and depressive disorders in a single factor; a DSM-based 2-factor model, with anxiety disorders in one factor, and depressive disorders in another factor; and an alternate 2-factor model, with fear related anxiety disorders in one factor, and other anxiety and depressive disorders in another factor. The findings indicated support for all three models. Also, ADHD and ODD/CD were associated with only the shared variances between the latent factors in the 2-factor models, and not their unique variance. The implications of the findings for taxonomy, comorbidity, and clinical practice are discussed.

The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED): Informant Discrepancy, Measurement Invariance, and Test–Retest Reliability

“…All CFAs used a mean-and variance-adjusted weight least squares (WLSMV) estimator to account for the ordinal nature of the SCARED response scale [8,30]. Additionally, as in the prior study of invariance on the SCARED [8], we fixed factor means to zero, factor variances to one, and residual variances to one to ensure model identification for both parents and youths [31].…”

Specific Language Impairment and Perspective Taking: Delayed Development of Theory of Mind, Visual and Emotional Perspective Taking

“…The ADISC-IV is a semi-structured interview, based on the DSM-IV/DSM-IV TR diagnostic systems. Although ADISC-IV has been designed primarily to facilitate the diagnosis of the major anxiety disorders, it can also be used for diagnosing the other major childhood disorders, including the depressive disorders, 1 These participants were the same participants involved in an earlier study that use CFA to examine different factor models of the internalizing disorders, including a one-factor model [10]. For the one-factor model in that paper, only the factor loadings that are analogous to the discrimination parameters were provided.…”

Beyond comorbidity: Toward a dimensional and hierarchical approach to understanding psychopathology across the life span

“…Kim & Eaton, in press; Kotov et al, in press), as it allows us to conceptualise how the structure unfolds at increasingly detailed levels of resolution. For example, the general factor bifurcates into the IE spectra, with Externalizing distinguished from Internalizing by the role of disinhibition in Externalizing (but not Internalizing) syndromes (Krueger & South, 2009); Internalizing subsequently splits into Fear and Distress facets in many structural studies (Doyle, Murphy, & Sheylin, 2016; Gomez, Vance, & Gomez, 2014; Kim & Eaton, in press; Kotov, Perlman, Gamez, & Watson, 2015; Watson, 2005). Symptom-level analyses of Externalizing have also uncovered lower-level facets of Oppositional or Antisocial Behaviour, and Substance Use (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001a; Kotov et al, in press; Krueger & South, 2009; Krueger & Tackett, 2014; Lahey et al, 2004).…”

“…At a lower level of the hierarchy, emerging evidence suggests that fear and distress are differentiated from early childhood (Hopwood, Zimmermann, Pincus, & Krueger, 2015; Lahey et al, 2008, 2011; Trosper, Whitton, Brown, & Pincus, 2012); and they have been explicitly found in confirmatory factor analyses in children and adolescents aged 5–16, 8–10, and 12–18 (Gomez et al, 2014; Kushner, Tackett, & Bagby, 2012; Doyle et al, 2016). However, one study found genetic and phenotypic correlations between anxiety and depression increased from childhood to early adulthood (Waszczuk et al, 2014).…”