Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany.
School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2024 Aug;52(8):1319-1327. doi: 10.1007/s10802-024-01187-9. Epub 2024 Apr 3.
Research on paranoid beliefs in adolescents is in its infancy. Valid and reliable assessments are essential to advancing the field, yet there is no current consensus as to which are optimal to use in this population. This study compared the psychometric properties of two measures of paranoia in a general population adolescent sample. A cross-sectional study with quota sampling (gender and age) recruited adolescents (14-17 years) from the UK (n = 262) and USA (n = 200), who completed the Revised Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scale (R-GPTS) and the Bird Checklist for Adolescent Paranoia (B-CAP). We assessed factor structures, intercorrelations, overlap of participants identified as at-risk for paranoid thoughts via both scales, convergent validity (scales with one another) and discriminant validity (distress, wellbeing, bullying and discrimination). Both scales performed equally well in terms of factorial validity. Intercorrelations between the subscales and with general distress were high for both measures. However, a substantial percentage of participants were identified as having paranoid beliefs according to the R-GPTS but not the B-CAP. Furthermore, the B-CAP showed a very high correlations (0.69 ≤ r ≤ 0.79) with self-reported bullying experiences, which bordered on multicollinearity. Findings highlight the possibility that B-CAP may risk confounding paranoid beliefs with exposure to bullying more so than R-GPTS, and that B-CAP may miss instances of elevated paranoia that are captured by the R-GPTS. Future research needs to further explore this by validating both scales with an external (e.g., interview-based) criterion for paranoia.
青少年偏执信念的研究还处于起步阶段。有效的和可靠的评估对于推动该领域的发展至关重要，但目前还没有达成共识，即哪种评估方法最适合该人群。本研究比较了两种普遍存在于青少年人群中的偏执观念评估方法的心理测量特性。采用横断面研究和配额抽样（性别和年龄），从英国（n=262）和美国（n=200）招募了青少年（14-17 岁），他们完成了修订后的 Green 等人偏执思维量表（R-GPTS）和青少年偏执鸟目清单（B-CAP）。我们评估了因素结构、相关性、通过两种量表识别为偏执思维风险的参与者的重叠、收敛效度（量表之间）和判别效度（困扰、幸福感、欺凌和歧视）。就因子有效性而言，两种量表的表现都相当。两种量表的子量表之间以及与一般困扰之间的相关性都很高。然而，根据 R-GPTS 确定的具有偏执信念的参与者比例相当高，但根据 B-CAP 确定的比例却不高。此外，B-CAP 与自我报告的欺凌经历之间存在非常高的相关性（0.69≤r≤0.79），接近多重共线性。研究结果表明，B-CAP 可能存在将偏执信念与遭受欺凌混淆的风险，比 R-GPTS 更甚，而且 B-CAP 可能会错过 R-GPTS 捕捉到的偏执程度升高的情况。未来的研究需要通过使用偏执的外部（例如，基于访谈的）标准来进一步验证这两种量表。
