The structure of psychopathology and association with poor sleep, self-harm, suicidality, risky sexual behaviour, and low self-esteem in a population sample of adolescents

There is a growing body of evidence highlighting the presence of a single general dimension of psychopathology that can account for multiple associations across mental and substance use disorders. However, relatively little evidence has emerged regarding the validity and utility of this model with respect to a range of factors that have been previously implicated across multiple disorders. The current study utilised a cross-sectional population survey of adolescents (n=2003) to examine the extent that broad psychopathology factors account for specific associations between psychopathology and poor sleep, self-harm, suicidality, risky sexual behaviour, and low self-esteem. Confirmatory factor models, latent class models, and factor mixture models were estimated to identify the best structure of psychopathology. Structural equation models were then estimated to examine the broad and specific associations between each psychopathology indicator and the validity indicators. A confirmatory factor model with three lower order factors, representing internalizing, externalizing, and thought disorder, and a single higher order factor evidenced the best fit. The associations between manifest indicators of psychopathology and validity indicators were largely non-specific. However, significant direct effects were found between several important pairwise associations. These findings have implications for the identification of potential targets for intervention and/or tailoring of prevention programs.