Three-factor structure of self-report schizotypal traits in a French nonclinical sample

Evidence suggests that the structure of psychosisproneness in the general population may involve three distinct related dimensions. Therefore we conducted a study, using a wider range of measures, to explore the factorial structure of schizotypy assessed by a mixed self-report Schizotypal Traits Questionnaire (mSTQ) in young French healthy individuals. Raine’s Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire [SPQ] and four of the Chapman’s scales [Magical Ideation Scale-MIS; Perceptual Aberration Scale-PAS; Revised Physical Anhedonia Scale-PhA and Revised Social Anhedonia Scale-SA] were combined to form a mSTQ which was administered to 232 French undergraduate students aged from 18 to 25 years old. A Principal Component Analysis [PCA] was carried out on scores for each scale to examine the factorial structure of schizotypal traits in this sample. PCA evidenced a three-factor model of schizotypy in the sample as a whole and even in the lower score subsample. The three factors were “positive or cognitiveperceptual”, “negative or social-interpersonal” and “disorganization” latent. Schizotypy, as assessed by these scales, is a multidimensional construct composed by at least three dimensions in this nonclinical sample. This factorial structure is similar to those of schizophrenia symptoms which raise the hypothesis of a continuum from normality to schizophrenia via schizotypal traits