Benjamin B. Lahey

Background: Recent developmental models posited that general tendencies to exhibit psychological problems are relatively stable, but specific problems change frequently. We need comprehensive descriptions of persistence and change in psychological problems before advancing such theories, however. Methods: Data from four annual assessments of 9806 children (ages 9–10 years at baseline) in the Adolescent Behavior Cognitive Development Study™ were used to quantify persistence and change in each of 10 parent‐rated specific psychological problems. Results: Novel pairwise analyses revealed that the persistence of psychological problems over 1–3 years was common, but behavior change in the sense that problem x ₁ at baseline desisted and was replaced by a new problem y ₂ at follow‐up was uncommon. The only relatively common changes in behavior over time involved adding a new problem (i.e., x ₁ at baseline followed by x ₂ + y ₂ at follow‐up) or subtracting a problem (i.e., x ₁ + y ₁ at baseline followed by only y ₂ at follow‐up). Conclusions: If confirmed across other measures and developmental epochs, these findings challenge a key postulate of current theories that the developmental course of psychological problems involves frequent replacement of one problem by another.

This article discusses the general factor of psychological problems. Hundreds of published studies have advanced understanding of the general factor of psychological problems, but confusion still surrounds the hypothesis. This partly results from critics conflating the hypotheses with those of other authors, but they have created confusion ourselves by stating two hypotheses involving the general factor, which they better differentiate here. In the psychometric general factor hypothesis, the general factor is simply the term in bifactor models that quantifies the variance shared by all measured psychological problems, whereas two or more specific factors are defined by orthogonal pools of variance shared only by items loading on each specific factor. Although the psychometric bifactor model is sometimes viewed as an alternative to taxonomic models based on correlated factor models, it is not. Those models properly describe the overlapping dimensions of psychological problems experienced in everyday life. Because bifactor and correlated factors models serve different purposes, there is no need to compare their fits. The separate hierarchical causal hypothesis is that correlations among all problems that define the general factor result from some of their causes and mechanisms being directly or indirectly shared, whereas the specific factors are the result of other causes being shared by subsets of problems. There is growing evidence that some genetic and environmental causes-and their attendant psychobiological mechanisms-are shared to varying degrees with essentially all psychological problems. Other independent causes and mechanisms influence only subgroups of psychological problems (e.g., internalizing problems), and still others are problem-specific. At this point, the evidence is informative but only correlational. Nonetheless, there is evidence that some measured variables of potential causal and mechanistic significance are empirically correlated with the general factor term in bifactor models, whereas other risk factors are correlated with the terms for the specific factors of psychological problems. Other studies have shown that the general factor of psychological problems is robustly correlated with important psychological constructs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Studies suggest that prosocial behavior, having high empathy and engaging in behaviors intended to benefit others, may predict mental health or vice versa; however, these findings have been mixed. The purpose of the current study was to examine the bidirectional relationships between prosocial behavior and dimensions of psychopathology in children.Methods: The relationships between prosocial behavior and four dimensions of psychopathology (general psychopathology, internalizing symptoms, conduct problems, and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms) were examined longitudinally in children 9–12 years of age from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (N = 9122). We used a random intercept cross‐lagged panel model to distinguish between stable, trait‐like (between‐person) and time‐dependent (within‐person) fluctuations across a 24‐month period.Results: Between‐person results revealed that prosocial behavior was negatively associated with general psychopathology and conduct problems while being positively associated with internalizing symptoms. Within‐person results demonstrated that, out of four possible directional paths tested, one was significant. This path showed that greater general psychopathology and conduct problems at the first‐year follow‐up predicted fewer prosocial behaviors at the second‐year follow‐up, although the effect size was small. In contrast, prosocial behavior did not predict psychopathology dimensions for any year.Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that prosocial behaviors have stable associations with psychopathology across preadolescence; however, evidence of a directional association in which psychopathology predicts fewer prosocial behaviors in the future was only modest.

Background: We used a polygenic score for externalizing behavior (extPGS) and structural MRI to examine potential pathways from genetic liability to conduct problems via the brain across the adolescent transition. Methods: Three annual assessments of child conduct problems, attention‐deficit/hyperactivity problems, and internalizing problems were conducted across across 9–13 years of age among 4,475 children of European ancestry in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development ^SM Study (ABCD Study®). Results: The extPGS predicted conduct problems in each wave ( R ² = 2.0%–2.9%). Bifactor models revealed that the extPRS predicted variance specific to conduct problems ( R ² = 1.7%–2.1%), but also variance that conduct problems shared with other measured problems ( R ² = .8%–1.4%). Longitudinally, extPGS predicted levels of specific conduct problems ( R ² = 2.0%), but not their slope of change across age. The extPGS was associated with total gray matter volume (TGMV; R ² = .4%) and lower TGMV predicted both specific conduct problems ( R ² = 1.7%–2.1%) and the variance common to all problems in each wave ( R ² = 1.6%–3.1%). A modest proportion of the polygenic liability specific to conduct problems in each wave was statistically mediated by TGMV. Conclusions: Across the adolescent transition, the extPGS predicted both variance specific to conduct problems and variance shared by all measured problems. The extPGS also was associated with TGMV, which robustly predicted conduct problems. Statistical mediation analyses suggested the hypothesis that polygenic variation influences individual differences in brain development that are related to the likelihood of conduct problems during the adolescent transition, justifying new research to test this causal hypothesis.

The Hurst exponent (H) isolated in fractal analyses of neuroimaging time series is implicated broadly in cognition. Within this literature, H is associated with multiple mental disorders, suggesting that H is transdimensionally associated with psychopathology. Here, we unify these results and demonstrate a pattern of decreased H with increased general psychopathology and attention-deficit/hyperactivity factor scores during a working memory task in 1,839 children. This pattern predicts current and future cognitive performance in children and some psychopathology in 703 adults. This pattern also defines psychological and functional axes associating psychopathology with an imbalance in resource allocation between fronto-parietal and sensorimotor regions, driven by reduced resource allocation to fronto-parietal regions. This suggests the hypothesis that impaired working memory function in psychopathology follows from a reduced cognitive resource pool and a reduction in resources allocated to the task at hand.

Background: An ongoing positive revolution advocates a new approach to the individual differences in human emotions, cognitions, and behavior that cause distress and impair functioning. This revolution endorses the long‐proposed, but still unrealized rejection of the medical model, which attributes psychological problems to a sick brain or mind. In addition, it advocates replacing the binary diagnoses used in ICD and DSM, which assume a clear discontinuity between “normal” and “abnormal” functioning, with continuous dimensions of psychological problems.Method: Selective literature review.Results and Discussion: Seven strong reasons are provided for adopting a dimensional approach.

In a previous issue of Clinical Psychological Science, Clark and colleagues asserted that lower order factors in second-order models are comparable with specific factors in bifactor models when residualized on the general factor. Modeling simulated data demonstrated that residualized lower order factors are correlated with bifactor-specific factors only to the extent that factor loadings are proportional. Modeling actual data with violations of proportionality showed that specific and residualized lower order factors are not always highly correlated and have differential correlations with criterion variables even when both models fit acceptably. Because proportionality constraints limit only second-order models, bifactor models should be the first option for hierarchical modeling.