Investigating the general psychopathology factor in autistic youth

Background Autistic youth are at higher risk of presenting with co-occurring internalizing (I) (i.e., anxiety and depression) and externalizing (E) (i.e., aggression and impulsivity) disorders (Bauminger et al., 2010). The Child Behavior Checklist for ages 6–18 (CBCL/6-18; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) is a measure of I-E disorders and symptoms in autistic and neurotypical youth, providing norm-referenced subscales as factors for each form of psychopathology. The general psychopathology or “p” factor may provide a better measure of co-occurring disorders in autism as it has not been evaluated in this population contextually to date. The p factor proposes that psychopathological disorders come from the same etiological factor, implying that we can measure all I-E disorders as indicators of p. Method Using archival data from the Province of Ontario Neurodevelopmental Disorders (POND) Network, (N = 782) autistic youths’ raw scores from the CBCL/6-18 were analyzed using two confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs): an I-E CFA and a p factor CFA. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was also conducted to determine the best-fitting factor structure. Results A chi-square difference test compared each CFA to find the best model fit. Results reported each model as individually significant, however, based on recommendations from Hoyle and Panter (1995), neither model had an acceptable fit. Conclusions Given that neither the p factor nor the internalizing/externalizing factor models had appropriate fit, it is recommended that future research investigate whether the CBCL/6–18 is the most appropriate measure for assessing co-occurring symptoms in autistic youth. The results of the EFA also suggest that the CBCL may not be the most appropriate measure for autistic youth.