Abstract
Behavioral Approach System (BAS) sensitivity has been implicated in the development of a variety of different psychiatric disorders. Prominent among these in the empirical literature are bipolar spectrum disorders (BSDs). Given that adolescence represents a critical developmental stage of risk for the onset of BSDs, it is important to clarify the latent structure of BAS sensitivity in this period of development. A statistical approach especially well-suited for delineating the latent structure of BAS sensitivity is taxometric analysis, which is designed to evaluate whether the latent structure of a construct is taxonic (i.e., categorical) or dimensional (i.e., continuous) in nature. The current study applied three mathematically non-redundant taxometric procedures (i.e., MAMBAC, MAXEIG, and L-Mode) to a large community sample of adolescents (n = 12,494) who completed two separate measures of BAS sensitivity: the BIS/BAS Scales Carver and White (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 319–333. 1994) and the Sensitivity to Reward and Sensitivity to Punishment Questionnaire (Torrubia et al. Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 837–862. 2001). Given the significant developmental changes in reward sensitivity that occur across adolescence, the current investigation aimed to provide a fine-grained evaluation of the data by performing taxometric analyses at an age-by-age level (14–19 years; n for each age ≥ 883). Results derived from taxometric procedures, across all ages tested, were highly consistent, providing strong evidence that BAS sensitivity is best conceptualized as dimensional in nature. Thus, the findings suggest that BAS-related vulnerability to BSDs exists along a continuum of severity, with no natural cut-point qualitatively differentiating high- and low-risk adolescents. Clinical and research implications for the assessment of BSD-related vulnerability are discussed.
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Notes
The smallest raw number of cases of the simulated putative taxon in our analyses, across all age groups, was 430 for 16-year-olds.
Restricting analyses to participants who completed the Phase II screening would also be problematic insofar as it significantly increases the possibility of spurious findings. That is, conducting taxometric analysis with participants selected using a measure of the construct of interest, producing a non-continuous distribution on the measure, substantially heightens the likelihood of detecting a pseudotaxon, and thus should be avoided (Ruscio et al. 2006).
The BAS-RR subscale and the SPSRQ SR subscale were included as separate taxometric indicators in the analyses due to the relatively low correlations between these scales at each age. Additionally, the correlations between these indicators were comparable or lower than the remaining correlations across taxometric indicators, supporting the validity of maintaining the distinction between the BAS-RR and SPSRQ SR subscales.
Mean estimated taxon base rates were: .50 across all ages, .61 for 14-year-olds, .57 for 15-year-olds, .49 for 16-year-olds, .54 for 17-year-olds, .51 for 18-year-olds, and .52 for 19-year-olds.
Although the BAS-RR subscale falls just short of this condition for analyses with data from 15-year-olds (Cohen’s d = 1.249), it does not compromise the validity of the analyses for this age group, especially given the high validity of the remaining three indicators.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health R01 Grants MH77908 and MH102310 to Lauren B. Alloy. Preparation of the manuscript also was supported by National Institute of Mental Health R01 Grant MH101138 to Richard T. Liu and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to Taylor A. Burke.
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Liu, R.T., Burke, T.A., Abramson, L.Y. et al. The Behavioral Approach System (BAS) Model of Vulnerability to Bipolar Disorder: Evidence of a Continuum in BAS Sensitivity across Adolescence. J Abnorm Child Psychol 46, 1333–1349 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0363-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0363-9