The structure of schizotypal personality traits: a cross-national study

Authors

Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero, University of La Rioja, Centro De Investigacion En Red De Salud Mental
M Debbane, University of Geneva
J Ortuno-Sierra, University of La Rioja
R. C. K. Chan, CAS Key Laboratory Of Mental Health
D C. Cicero, University of Hawaii at Manoa
L C. Zhang, University of British Columbia
C Brenner, University of British Columbia
Emma Barkus, University of WollongongFollow
R J. Linscott, University of Otago
T Kwapil, University of North Carolina
Neus Barrantes-Vidal, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Alex S. Cohen, Lousiana State University
Michael Compton, Lenox Hill Hospital
Erin B. Tone, Georgia State University
Julie Suhr, Ohio University
J Muniz, Center For Biomedical Research In The Mental Health Network (Cibersam)
Axit Fumero, University of La Laguna
Stella Giakoumaki, University Of Crete
Ioannis Tsaousis, University Of Crete
Antonio Preti, Genneruxi Medical Center
Michael Chmielewski, Southern Methodist University
Julien Laloyaux, University of Bergen
Anwar Mechri, University of Monastir
Mohamed Lahmar, University of Monastir
Viviana Wuthrich, Macquarie University
Frank Laroi, University of Liege
Johanna C. Badcock, The University Of Western Australia
Assen Jablensky, University of Western Australia

RIS ID

115577

Publication Details

Fonseca-Pedrero, E., Debbane, M., Ortuno-Sierra, J., Chan, R., Cicero, D., Zhang, L. C., Brenner, C., Barkus, E., Linscott, R. J., Kwapil, T., Barrantes-Vidal, N., Cohen, A. S., Compton, M., Tone, E. B., Suhr, J., Muniz, J., Fumero, A., Giakoumaki, S., Tsaousis, I., Preti, A., Chmielewski, M., Laloyaux, J., Mechri, A., Lahmar, M., Wuthrich, V., Laroi, F., Badcock, J. C., Jablensky, A. et al (2017). The structure of schizotypal personality traits: a cross-national study. Psychological Medicine, 48 (3), 451-462.

Abstract

Schizotypal traits are considered a phenotypic-indicator of schizotypy, a latent personality organization reflecting a putative liability for psychosis. To date, no previous study has examined the comparability of factorial structures across samples originating from different countries and cultures. The main goal was to evaluate the factorial structure and reliability of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) scores by amalgamating data from studies conducted in 12 countries and across 21 sites. The overall sample consisted of 27 001 participants (37.5% males, n = 4251 drawn from the general population). The mean age was 22.12 years (s.d. = 6.28, range 16–55 years). The SPQ was used. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Multilevel CFA (ML-CFA) were used to evaluate the factor structure underlying the SPQ scores. At the SPQ item level, the nine factor and second-order factor models showed adequate goodness-of-fit. At the SPQ subscale level, three- and four-factor models displayed better goodness-of-fit indices than other CFA models. ML-CFA showed that the intraclass correlation coefficients values were lower than 0.106. The three-factor model showed adequate goodness of fit indices in multilevel analysis. The ordinal α coefficients were high, ranging from 0.73 to 0.94 across individual samples, and from 0.84 to 0.91 for the combined sample. The results are consistent with the conceptual notion that schizotypal personality is a multifaceted construct and support the validity and utility of SPQ in cross-cultural research. We discuss theoretical and clinical implications of our results for diagnostic systems, psychosis models and cross-national mental health strategies.