Developmental coupling between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and psychotic-like experiences in youth: a four-wave...

Area of Science:

• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) frequently co-occur in youth.
• The nature of this overlap (stable differences vs. longitudinal coupling) is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the developmental coupling between OCS and PLEs from late childhood to early adolescence.
• To differentiate between-person and within-person associations over time.
• To identify symptom-level connections and developmental pathways.

Main Methods:

• Utilized four waves of data from 7,451 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.
• Employed parallel-process latent growth models, cross-lagged panel models, and random-intercept cross-lagged panel models.
• Conducted temporal network analyses to examine symptom-level bridge patterns.

Main Results:

• OCS and PLEs exhibited distinct but partially coupled developmental trajectories.
• Higher initial OCS was linked to higher initial PLEs and a less favorable PLE trajectory.
• Within-person analysis revealed PLEs predicted increases in OCS between ages 12-13, while initial associations were largely between-person differences.

Conclusions:

• The overlap between OCS and PLEs evolves across development.
• Developmental timing and symptom-specific assessment are crucial for understanding youth mental health.
• Intrusive thoughts and worry act as key bridge symptoms in the OCS-PLEs network.