title: Psychotic-like experiences and associated socio-demographic factors among adolescents in China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Adolescents with persistent psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) may be at high risk for later development of psychoses. Exploring early age risk factors for PLEs may provide useful information for prevention of mental disorders and improvement of mental health.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 5427 adolescents (aged between 10 and 16) participated in a cross-sectional survey, with social and demographic information collected. The Positive Subscale of Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE) was used to measure PLEs, and the CAPE Depressive and Negative Subscales were used to examine depressive and negative experiences. The Trauma History Questionnaire (child version) was used to assess experiences of previous traumatic events.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In our study, 95.7% of the adolescents reported more than one episode of PLEs, while 17.2% reported "nearly always" having PLEs. High positive correlations were shown both between frequency scores among experiences of three dimensions (PLEs, depressive and negative experiences), and between frequency and distress scores. Factors associated with a higher risk for more frequent and distressing PLEs include: urban setting, family history of psychiatric illnesses, and higher impact from previous traumatic events at present.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Episodes of PLEs are common in Chinese adolescents, however only a small proportion have persistent PLEs, with worsening distress as the frequency increased. PLEs shared similar environmental and genetic risk factors not only with the clinical phenotypes, which is consistent with the continuity model of PLEs, but also with depressive and negative experiences, which may imply etiologic relation between different dimensions of psychosis at the subclinical level.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Institute for Public Health, Washington University, St. Louis, USA.
authors.forename: Xinran
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Aimin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: College of Health Sciences, University of Dodoma, P.O. Box 395, Dodoma, Tanzania.
authors.forename: Tumbwene Elieza
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Mwansisya
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Xudong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Jingcheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Helen F K
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Mental Health, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China. Electronic address: zningl@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhening
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: CAPE; Left-behind children; Psychosis; Trauma history