Latent structure of psychotic-like experiences in adolescents: Evidence from a multi-method taxometric study of a school-based sample in Ghana

Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are subclinical psychotic symptoms that occur outside the context of sleep or are unrelated to drug use. PLEs of varying severity are reportedly very common in adolescence. However, there are concerns about whether the structure of PLEs among adolescents is latently dimensional or categorical (“taxonic”). The current study investigates the latent structure of PLEs in 1,886 adolescents recruited from senior high schools in Ghana. Four multivariate taxometric procedures (MAMBAC, MAXEIG, L-Mode and MAXSLOPE) were applied to analyze the data. Across the taxometric procedures, there was evidence that a dimensional structure underpins positive PLEs, negative PLEs and a combination of positive and negative PLEs. The findings suggest that PLEs are distributed in the adolescent population at differing degrees/severity and that evidence of discontinuity between milder and more severe PLEs is non-existent. The findings highlight the importance of incorporating a dimensional assessment of PLEs into the existing categorical approach so that differences between people can been seen as quantitative variations along the PLEs continuum.