Exploring transdiagnostic factors of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in transitional-age youth: Using a variable-centered and person-centered approach

Transitional-age youth (TAY; 15 to 25 years old) are more likely to experience psychological problems compared to other age groups. This study aimed to identify the most relevant transdiagnostic factors underlying internalizing and externalizing symptoms in TAY, including perfectionism, perceived stress, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation, self-esteem, and autonomy. The sample consisted of 87 TAY from a clinical and 649 from a community sample (M = 20.71, 64.1% female). Confidence Interval Based Estimation of Relevance (CIBER) was used to detect the most relevant transdiagnostic factors, and Latent Profile Analyses (LPA) were used to identify groups of TAY sharing similar patterns of transdiagnostic factors. CIBER showed that all transdiagnostic factors were associated with both internalizing and externalizing symptoms, with most factors being more strongly associated with internalizing symptoms. LPA identified six groups of TAY: low resilience (6.5%), moderate low resilience (20.5%), average resilience (29.3%), moderate high resilience (26.8%), moderate high resilience - high perfectionism and autonomy (1.8%) and high resilience (15.1%). Generally, TAY in the lower resilience groups were more likely to be in the clinical sample than in the community sample and showed more symptoms compared to TAY in the higher resilience groups. Conversely, TAY in the moderate high resilience - high perfectionism and autonomy group were most likely to be in the community sample. The study highlights the importance of focusing on transdiagnostic factors in research and clinical practice for TAY.