P-Factor(s) for Youth Psychopathology Across Informants and Models in 24 Societies

ABSTRACT

Objective

Although the significance of the general factor of psychopathology (p) is being increasingly recognized, it remains unclear how to best operationalize and measure p. To test variations in the operationalizations of p and make practical recommendations for its assessment, we compared p-factor scores derived from four models.

Methods

We compared p scores derived from principal axis (Model 1), hierarchical factor (Model 2), and bifactor (Model 3) analyses, plus a Total Problem score (sum of unit-weighted ratings of all problem items; Model 4) for parent- and self-rated youth psychopathology from 24 societies. Separately for each sample, we fitted the models to parent-ratings on the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 6–18 (CBCL/6–18) and self-ratings on the Youth Self-Report (YSR) for 25,643 11–18-year-olds. Separately for each sample, we computed correlations between p-scores obtained for each pair of models, cross-informant correlations between p-scores for each model, and Q-correlations between mean item x p-score correlations for each pair of models.

Results

Results were similar for all models, as indicated by correlations of .973–.994 between p-scores for Models 1–4, plus similar cross-informant correlations between CBCL/6–18 and YSR Model 1–4 p-scores. Item x p correlations had similar rank orders between Models 1–4, as indicated by Q correlations of .957–.993.

Conclusions

The similar results obtained for Models 1–4 argue for using the simplest model – the unit-weighted Total Problem score – to measure p for clinical and research assessment of youth psychopathology. Practical methods for measuring p may advance the field toward transdiagnostic patterns of problems.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Dr. William Copeland for his helpful feedback.

Disclosure Statement

At the time of this study, Thomas Achenbach, Masha Ivanova, Hannah Ritz, and Lori Turner were employed by the University of Vermont Research Center for Children, Youth, and Families that publishes the Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 6-18 and the Youth Self-Report.

Data Availability Statement

US data are available from the corresponding author, who can provide e-mail addresses for requests for data from non-US authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

Authors’ salaries and expenses were funded by their institutions. No outside funding was received.