NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Mental Health and Substance Use, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales.
Centre for Mental Health Research, Australian National University.
J Abnorm Psychol. 2013 Nov;122(4):1010-20. doi: 10.1037/a0034562.
Two methodological criticisms have limited the reliability and validity of findings from previous studies that seek to examine change across the life span in levels of internalizing psychopathology using general population surveys. The first criticism involves the potential influence of cohort effects that confound true age-related changes whereas the second criticism involves the use of a single form of assessment to measure and compare levels of internalizing psychopathology. This study seeks to address these criticisms by modeling age-related change using multiple measures and multiple surveys. Data from 2 epidemiological surveys conducted 10 years apart in the Australian general population were combined and used for the current study. The latent construct of internalizing psychopathology was modeled using a combination of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) depression and anxiety diagnoses as well as items from the Kessler Psychological Distress scale (K10; Kessler et al., 2002). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that a single internalizing dimension provided good model fit to the data. Multigroup CFA indicated that strict measurement invariance of the model can be assumed across survey administrations and age bands, justifying comparisons of mean differences in latent trait levels. Significant changes in mean levels of latent internalizing psychopathology were evident between respondents aged 30-39 years old in 1997 and respondents aged 40-49 years old in 2007, suggesting a minor but significant increase in psychopathology across middle age. By contrast, a minor but significant decrease in psychopathology was noted when transitioning from late middle age (50-59 years old) to old age (60-69 years old). The majority of individuals in the general population will experience constant levels of internalizing psychopathology as they age, suggesting that the construct is relatively stable.
两项方法学批评限制了先前研究结果的可靠性和有效性，这些研究试图使用一般人群调查来检验在整个生命周期内内在心理病理水平的变化。第一个批评涉及到队列效应的潜在影响，这些效应混淆了真正的与年龄相关的变化，而第二个批评涉及到使用单一形式的评估来衡量和比较内在心理病理水平。本研究试图通过使用多种测量方法和多个调查来解决这些批评。本研究将相隔 10 年在澳大利亚一般人群中进行的 2 项流行病学调查的数据合并，并用于当前的研究。使用《精神障碍诊断与统计手册》（第 4 版；DSM-IV；美国精神病学协会，1994 年）的抑郁和焦虑诊断以及 Kessler 心理困扰量表（K10；Kessler 等人，2002 年）的项目来对内在心理病理的潜在结构进行建模。验证性因素分析（CFA）表明，单一的内在维度为数据提供了良好的模型拟合。多组 CFA 表明，模型的严格测量不变性可以假定在调查管理和年龄带之间，从而可以比较潜在特质水平的均值差异。在 1997 年年龄在 30-39 岁的受访者和 2007 年年龄在 40-49 岁的受访者之间，潜在的内在心理病理的平均水平明显变化，表明在中年时期有轻微但显著的增加。相比之下，从中年后期（50-59 岁）过渡到老年期（60-69 岁）时，心理病理学有轻微但显著的下降。大多数普通人群中的个体随着年龄的增长会经历内在心理病理的恒定水平，这表明该结构相对稳定。
