This thesis will make a valuable contribution to our understanding of the phenotypic expression of psychotic like symptoms (PLEs) in adolescence and risk factors associated with these experiences, informing the extant literature in this field. Epidemiological studies have shown that PLEs are reported in the general population and that the differences between clinical and non-clinical samples are quantitative rather than qualitative (Johns et a1., 2004; Linscott & Van as, 2013). Importantly, PLEs are relatively common in early adolescence and for the majority are transitory, however when these experiences persist into later adolescence they have been found to predict a range of psychotic and non-psychotic disorders (Kelleher et a1., 2012). Evidence further suggests that PLEs share phenomenological and aetiological continuity with clinical psychosis and childhood trauma has been implicated as a risk factor for psychotic symptomatology in both clinical and non-clinical populations (Linscott & Van Os, 2013). To date loneliness has not been conceptualised in trauma-psychosis associations (and it is believed that this will add to the field by demonstrating the significance of adolescent loneliness in these associations). This thesis addresses a number of gaps in the knowledge base by 1) measuring the underlying structure of PLEs in a large adolescent sample using confirmatory factor analysis and factor mixture modelling; 2) examining the role of peel' victimisation, negative self and other evaluations and childhood feelings of threat and subordination in these experiences and; 3) exploring and conceptualising the role of loneliness in trauma-psychosis associations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:674728 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Murphy, Siobhan |
| Publisher | Ulster University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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