Hyland, Philip and Karatzias, Thanos and Ford, Julian D. and Fox, Robert and Spinazzola, Joseph (2022) The Latent Structure of Child and Adolescent Psychopathology and its Association with Different Forms of Trauma and Suicidality and Self-Harm. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, 50 (11). pp. 1501-1513. ISSN 2730-7166

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Abstract

The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is a multidimensional and hierarchical model of the latent structure of psychopathology. While HiTOP has received much support in child/adolescent community samples, fewer studies have assessed this model in clinical samples of children/adolescents. Here, we modelled the latent structure of 45 symptoms of psychopathology from a clinical sample of children/adolescents and assessed how dimensions of psychopathology were related to specific forms of trauma and suicidality/self-harm. Clinician-derived assessments were obtained from 507 people aged 7–18 years. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine the optimal fitting model, and structural equation modelling was used to estimate associations with trauma exposure and suicidality/self-harm. The best fitting model(s) included five first-order factors reflecting Fear, Distress, Externalizing, Thought Disorder, and Traumatic Stress, with a higher-order general factor (p) accounting for the covariation between these factors. Unique associations were identified between specific forms of trauma and each dimension of psychopathology. p was strongly associated with suicidality/self-harm, and of the first-order factors, Distress was most strongly associated with suicidality/self-harm. Findings support the predictions of HiTOP that the latent structure of child/adolescent psychopathology can be effectively described by a multidimensional and hierarchal model. Moreover, we found tentative evidence for a unique dimension of Traumatic Stress psychopathology. Our findings also highlight the unique associations between specific forms of early life trauma and specific dimensions of psychopathology, and the importance of Distress related psychopathology for suicidality/self-harm in children and adolescents.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	HiTOP; Psychopathology; Child and adolescent; Trauma; Suicidality; Self-harm;
Academic Unit:	Assisting Living & Learning,ALL institute Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology
Item ID:	18557
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-022-00925-1
Depositing User:	Philip Hyland
Date Deposited:	21 May 2024 13:57
Journal or Publication Title:	Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology
Publisher:	Springer
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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