BACKGROUND: The best-fitting model of the structure of common psychopathology often includes a general factor on which all dimensions of psychopathology load. Such a general factor would be important if it reflects etiologies and mechanisms shared by all dimensions of psychopathology. Nonetheless, a viable alternative explanation is that the general factor is partly or wholly a result of common method variance or other systematic measurement biases. METHODS: To test this alternative explanation, we extracted general, externalizing, and internalizing factor scores using mother-reported symptoms across 5-11 years of age in confirmatory factor analyses of data from a representative longitudinal study of 2,450 girls. Independent associations between the three psychopathology factor scores and teacher-reported criterion variables were estimated in multiple regression, controlling intelligence, and demographic covariates. RESULTS: The model including the general factor fit significantly better than a correlated two-factor (internalizing/externalizing) model. The general factor was robustly and independently associated with all measures of teacher-reported school functioning concurrently during childhood and prospectively during adolescence. CONCLUSIONS: These findings weaken the hypothesis that the general factor of psychopathology in childhood is solely a measurement artifact and support further research on the substantive meaning of the general factor.
BACKGROUND: The best-fitting model of the structure of common psychopathology often includes a general factor on which all dimensions of psychopathology load. Such a general factor would be important if it reflects etiologies and mechanisms shared by all dimensions of psychopathology. Nonetheless, a viable alternative explanation is that the general factor is partly or wholly a result of common method variance or other systematic measurement biases. METHODS: To test this alternative explanation, we extracted general, externalizing, and internalizing factor scores using mother-reported symptoms across 5-11 years of age in confirmatory factor analyses of data from a representative longitudinal study of 2,450 girls. Independent associations between the three psychopathology factor scores and teacher-reported criterion variables were estimated in multiple regression, controlling intelligence, and demographic covariates. RESULTS: The model including the general factor fit significantly better than a correlated two-factor (internalizing/externalizing) model. The general factor was robustly and independently associated with all measures of teacher-reported school functioning concurrently during childhood and prospectively during adolescence. CONCLUSIONS: These findings weaken the hypothesis that the general factor of psychopathology in childhood is solely a measurement artifact and support further research on the substantive meaning of the general factor.
Authors: B Birmaher; S Khetarpal; D Brent; M Cully; L Balach; J Kaufman; S M Neer Journal: J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry Date: 1997-04 Impact factor: 8.829
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