Open AccessBifactor Structure of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire Across the Schizotypy Spectrum
Author(s) -
Alexandra B. MoussaTooks,
Allen J. Bailey,
Amanda R. Bolbecker,
Richard J. Viken,
Brian F. O’Donnell
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of personality disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.23
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1943-2763
pISSN - 0885-579X
DOI - 10.1521/pedi_2020_34_466
Subject(s) - schizotypy , psychology , schizotypal personality disorder , personality , schizophrenia spectrum , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , schizoaffective disorder , construct (python library) , clinical psychology , psychometrics , developmental psychology , personality assessment inventory , psychosis , psychiatry , social psychology , computer science , programming language
Despite widespread use in schizophrenia-spectrum research, uncertainty remains around an empirically supported and theoretically meaningful factor structure of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Current identified structures are limited by reliance on exclusively nonclinical samples. The current study compared factor structures of the SPQ in a sample of 335 nonpsychiatric individuals, 292 schizotypy-spectrum individuals (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or schizotypal personality disorder), and the combined group ( N = 627). Unidimensional, correlated, and hierarchical models were assessed in addition to a bifactor model, wherein subscales load simultaneously onto a general factor and a specific factor. The best-fitting model across samples was a two-specific factor bifactor model, consistent with the nine symptom dimensions of schizotypy as primarily a direct manifestation of a unitary construct. Such findings, for the first time demonstrated in a clinical sample, have broad implications for transdiagnostic approaches, including reifying schizotypy as a construct underlying diverse manifestations of phenomenology across a wide range of severity.