Developmental stability of general and specific factors of psychopathology from early childhood to adolescence: dynamic mutualism or p-differentiation?

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Recent research indicates that the best-fitting structural model of psychopathology includes a general factor capturing comorbidity (p) and several more specific, orthogonal factors. Little is known about the stability of these factors, although two opposing developmental processes have been proposed: dynamic mutualism suggests that symptom-level interaction and reinforcement may lead to a strengthening of comorbidity (p) over time, whereas p-differentiation suggests a general vulnerability to psychopathology that gives way to increasingly distinct patterns of symptoms over time. In order to test both processes, we examine two forms of developmental stability from ages 2 to 14 years: strength (i.e., consistency in the amount of variance explained by general and specific factors)

SUBMITTER: McElroy E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6001631 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature