The Development of Preliminary HiTOP Internalizing Spectrum Scales

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) consortium aims to create a comprehensive classification system for psychopathology.
• Developing reliable self-report measures is crucial for assessing a wide range of psychological symptoms.
• Existing measures may not fully capture the nuanced dimensions of internalizing symptoms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate preliminary self-report scales for assessing internalizing symptoms.
• To identify and define specific constructs within the domain of internalizing psychopathology.
• To evaluate the psychometric properties and structural validity of the developed scales.

Main Methods:

• Item pool generation through construct definition and multi-step writing process (430 items, 57 constructs).
• Item-level factor analyses on polychoric correlations using a large-scale development sample (N=1,870).
• Psychometric evaluation including internal consistency and structural analyses in independent validation sample (N=496).

Main Results:

• 39 scales comprising 213 items were identified, demonstrating good psychometric properties.
• Internal consistency analyses indicated that scales assess relatively narrow forms of psychopathology.
• Structural analyses revealed a strong general factor and a replicable four-factor structure (Distress, Fear, Body Dysmorphia, Mania) for nonsexual dysfunction scales.
• Internalizing scales showed consistent associations with neuroticism and extraversion.

Conclusions:

• The developed scales provide a robust and psychometrically sound measure for internalizing symptoms.
• The findings support the HiTOP model's dimensional approach to psychopathology.
• The identified structure and associations with personality traits offer valuable insights for clinical assessment and research.