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Confirmatory factor analysis of autism and schizophrenia spectrum traits

journal contribution
posted on 2017-05-01, 00:00 authored by Talitha FordTalitha Ford, P Apputhurai, D Meyer, D P Crewther
The relationship between the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) data has consistently shown overlap in the social and interpersonal domains. Factor analyses of the AQ and SPQ subscales support this overlap with the emergence of a shared AQ and SPQ subscale factor as the largest common element. This study investigated, at the item level, the factor structure of the AQ and SPQ. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on the AQ and SPQ responses of 1670 participants (aged 18–40, 1243 females, 427 males). Seven factors cumulatively explained 40.56% of the data. Of these, four represented shared traits (named Odd Behaviour, Relationship Disinterest, Cue Interpretation, Social and Communication Discomfort), one was a more specific autistic tendency (named Fixation with Details), and two factors were more specific to the psychotic dimension of schizotypy (named Paranoia/Suspiciousness and Hallucination/Delusional Experiences). These findings demonstrate that a set of symptom traits is present in both the autism and schizophrenia spectra. The findings of this study have important clinical implications in terms of future research, diagnosis and treatment of autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

History

Journal

Personality and individual differences

Volume

110

Pagination

80 - 84

Publisher

Elsevier

Location

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

ISSN

0191-8869

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2017, Elsevier

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