Studying Development of Psychopathology Using Changing Measures to Account for Heterotypic Continuity

Objective: Psychopathology shows changes in behavioral manifestation across development, i.e., heterotypic continuity. However, research has paid little attention to how to account for heterotypic continuity when examining development of psychopathology. This longitudinal study accounted for heterotypic continuity of multiple psychopathology dimensions by using developmental scaling to place multi-informant ratings of children’s behavior problems onto the same scale to chart children’s trajectories.Method: The study examined children’s (N=231) development of three psychopathology dimensions—externalizing, internalizing, and thought-disordered—using different measures across seven timepoints from 3–7.5 years of age. Psychopathology dimensions were assessed by mother-, father-, and teacher/caregiver-report. We compared three assessment approaches: the common items, upward/downward extension, and construct-valid items approaches. We compared two scoring approaches: mean scoring and developmental scaling. Developmental scaling aims to place scores from age-differing measures onto the same scale. We compared their accuracy, for externalizing problems, in terms of criterion validity with respect to observations of compliance and attention to task.Results: Using different measures across ages (i.e., construct-valid items approach) was the most accurate assessment approach—modestly more accurate than using the common items or upward/downward extension—in terms of criterion validity with respect to observations of compliance and attention to task (rdiff=.07–.13). Developmental scaling was the most accurate scoring approach—modestly more accurate than average scores (rdiff=.03–.17).Conclusion: Using (a) age-differing measures to account for heterotypic continuity and (b) developmental scaling to link scores from the different measures onto the same scale may enable studying development of psychopathology across the lifespan.