Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
J Affect Disord. 2022 Aug 15;311:148-156. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.05.057. Epub 2022 May 17.
Schizotypy is a multidimensional personality trait related to the heightened risk for the development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. While it has been suggested that loneliness may be associated with schizotypy in general, whether it relates to the specific schizotypal traits differentially remains unknown. Besides, as loneliness often co-occurs with depression and anxiety, it is important to delineate its relationship with schizotypy in consideration of these co-occurring emotional disturbances.
A demographically diverse sample of young people was obtained from multiple sources. The validated sample consisted of 2089 participants (68.4% female, age range: 18-30). The structural relationship between loneliness and schizotypy was modelled using a network analytic approach. The Gaussian graphical model with loneliness and nine schizotypal traits as nodes was first estimated without, and then with adjustment for the levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Edges were estimated as unique associations between nodes.
'Suspiciousness', 'odd beliefs or magical thinking', 'no close friends', 'constricted affect' and 'excessive social anxiety' were linked to loneliness directly. Loneliness was found to be more strongly associated with 'suspiciousness' and 'no close friends' than other schizotypal traits. After adjustment for the levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms, the above direct edges remained robust.
The use of cross-sectional data indicated only undirected associations between variables.
Loneliness was more strongly linked to some schizotypal traits than others, with the relationships maintaining above and beyond the effects of anxiety and depression. These findings warrant further investigation of the specific relationships between loneliness and individual schizotypal traits.
分裂型特质是一种与精神分裂谱系障碍发展风险增加相关的多维人格特质。虽然有人认为孤独感可能与一般的分裂型特质有关，但它是否与特定的分裂型特质有不同的关系尚不清楚。此外，由于孤独感常常与抑郁和焦虑同时发生，因此在考虑这些共病的情绪障碍时，重要的是要明确它与分裂型特质的关系。
从多个来源获得了一个人口统计学多样化的年轻人样本。经验证的样本包括 2089 名参与者（68.4%为女性，年龄范围：18-30 岁）。使用网络分析方法对孤独感和分裂型特质之间的结构关系进行建模。首先，在不考虑抑郁和焦虑症状水平的情况下，对包含孤独感和九个分裂型特质作为节点的高斯图形模型进行估计；然后，在考虑抑郁和焦虑症状水平的情况下，对其进行估计。边缘被估计为节点之间的独特关联。
“可疑”、“奇异信念或魔幻思维”、“没有亲密朋友”、“情感受限”和“过度社交焦虑”与孤独感直接相关。与其他分裂型特质相比，孤独感与“可疑”和“没有亲密朋友”的关系更为密切。在调整了抑郁和焦虑症状的水平后，上述直接边缘仍然稳健。
使用横断面数据仅表明变量之间存在无向关联。
孤独感与某些分裂型特质的关系比其他特质更为密切，这些关系在焦虑和抑郁的影响之外仍然存在。这些发现值得进一步研究孤独感与个体分裂型特质之间的具体关系。
