title: An Examination of Content Overlap and Disorder-Specific Predictions in the Associations of Neuroticism with Anxiety and Depression.
abstract: This study examines whether content overlap artificially inflates estimates of the associations of emotional disorders with neuroticism and whether disorder-specificity of prediction exists. We demonstrated a statistical approach for testing the validity of hypothesized facets of neuroticism. In a sample of 627 adolescents, we indentified six facets of neuroticism, one intermediate facet, and a general neuroticism factor (GNF). Only the GNF and the depression facet were significantly associated with depressive symptomatology. The GNF and all facets significantly predicted anxiety symptomatology. This study offers a new statistical approach for addressing content overlap, testing for disorder specific prediction and identifying facets of a broad personality trait, while indicating that content overlap does not largely explain the associations of neuroticism with psychopathology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208.
authors.forename: Amanda A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Uliaszek
authors.forename: Katherina K Y
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Hauner
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Zinbarg
authors.forename: Michelle G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Craske
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mineka
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Griffith
authors.forename: Raphael D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Rose