Interpersonal Violence and Psychotic-Like Experiences: The Mediation of Ideas of Reference, Childhood Memories, and Dissociation.

Previous studies have demonstrated the relationship between the accumulation of situations involving interpersonal violence (IV) and psychotic-like experiences. This study explored whether IV is related to aberrant salience (AS), using a sequential mediation model that included memories of relationship with parents (submission, devaluation, and threat; Early Life Experiences Scale (ELES)), ideas of reference (IR), and dissociative symptoms (absorption and depersonalization), and whether the patient/nonpatient condition moderated this effect. The sample was made of 401 participants (including 43 patients with psychotic disorders) aged 18 to 71 years (Mage = 30.43; SD = 11.19). Analysis of a serial multiple mediator model revealed that IR, ELES, absorption, and depersonalization fully mediated the effect of IV on AS, explaining 39% of the variance, regardless of the patient/nonpatient condition. The indirect paths, which place IR and dissociation (especially absorption, the variable to which the IR and ELES lead) in a primordial position for being related to AS, are discussed. This continuum model could be useful for understanding processes related to the onset of psychosis unmoderated by the patient/nonpatient condition.

Spanish validation of the Aberrant Salience Inventory in a general adolescent population.

BACKGROUND: Aberrant salience (AS), related to classical delusional mood and self-disturbances, may be one of the keys to early detection of psychosis, before abnormal assignment of significance. As adolescence is a critical period in development of the self and there are few instruments for evaluating AS, validation of the Aberrant Salient Inventory (ASI) is proposed for use in the general adolescent population. METHODS: A sample of 4,523 participants, 53.6% women, from 11 to 18 years of age (M = 14.31, SD = 1.66), from 29 schools in Western Andalusia (Spain) were evaluated collectively. RESULTS: Good fit was found in the answers, and the original five-factor structure of the inventory was replicated. Reliability (ordinal alpha) was adequate both for the total (.95) and for the factors (.74. to .85). Invariance across sex, adequate indicators of concurrent (ideas of reference) and divergent (negative symptoms) validity, and sensitivity of .88 were found. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest the ASI for use in the general adolescent population, and show that 7% of the sample could be at risk of beginning psychosis.