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Abstract

Aims: Schizotypy reflects the vulnerability to schizophrenia in the general population. Different questionnaires have been developed to measure aspects of schizotypy. Higher schizotypy scores have also been linked with depression, anxiety, and stress sensitivity. Here we examine the associations of schizotypy with symptoms of depression and anxiety in a sample of university students, using two different measures (N = 271).

Methods: A series of confirmatory factor analyses was used to examine two distinct and frequently employed measures of schizotypy: the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE), and the Schizotypy Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). We assessed their relationship with each other and their predictive validity for anxiety, depression, and stress sensitivity.

Results: Our results indicated the brief 7-factor SPQ (SPQ-BR) factor solution for the SPQ and the 15-item and 3 factor solution for the CAPE (i.e., CAPE-P15) as best fitting models. Particularly the CAPE dimension of persecutory ideation was a strong predictor of anxiety, depression, and stress sensitivity, whereas the SPQ dimensions of no close friends and social anxiety predicted psychological distress and stress in our student sample.

Conclusions: Our findings extend earlier work in general and patient samples and point to the importance of understanding the contribution of particularly positive schizotypy symptoms and different interpersonal aspects to psychological distress.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2023 The Authors. Early Intervention in Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publisher Keywords:	SPQ; CAPE; schizotypy; factor structure; predictors; psychological distress
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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