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Cited by 192Mental Health Research TopicsChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentPersonality Disorders and Psychopathology

The development of the general factor of psychopathology “p factor” through childhood and adolescence

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Murray, Aja Louise, Eisner, Manuel, Ribeaud, Denis·2016·Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
DOI 10.1007/s10802-016-0132-1
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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.

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  • From the homogeneity assumption, the comorbidity and heterogeneity problems emerge and limit psychiatric research.

    “From the homo- geneity assumption, the comorbidity (17) and heterogeneity (18,19) problems emerge and limit psychiatric research (20–26).”

    From Methods and challenges for assessing heterogeneity (2020) · cites this paper as [17]

  • Other empirical studies employing the bifactor model have failed to find evidence for p or have found that a more specific factor fit just as well.

    “Other empirical studies employing the bifactor model have failed to find evidence for p (17) or have found that a more specific factor fit just as well (58).”

    From Methods and challenges for assessing heterogeneity (2020) · cites this paper as [17]

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Authors
Murray, A. L., Eisner, M., & Ribeaud, D.
Affiliations
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • ETH Zurich (CH)
Corresponding author
Murray, Aja Louise
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2016-02-04
Volume
44
Issue
8
Pages
1573-1586
ISSN
  • 0091-0627 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-2835
DOI
10.1007/s10802-016-0132-1
OpenAlex
W2297605059
Semantic Scholar
ab22dff8992a30440fb7e53640b43e2f1718a0fc
Cited by
192
References
69
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 3
FWCI
23.73
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
Funders
  • Swiss National Science Foundation
  • Jacobs Foundation (DE)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
Keywords
general psychopathology factor, p-factor, psychopathology development, childhood, adolescence, bifactor model, omega hierarchical
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Age Factors, Mental Disorders, Child, Child Development, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Psychological, Psychopathology, Risk Factors

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