Developmental changes in the endorsement of psychotic-like experiences from middle childhood through young adulthood

Background: Children tend to endorse psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) at higher rates than adults, although little is known about how specific symptom endorsement changes across the span of development. Here we take an observational approach to examine trends in PLE endorsement by age in two non-clinical samples: one of school-aged children and another of late adolescents and early adults.

Methods: Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief (child and adult versions) responses were investigated in individuals ages 9-13 (n = 11865) and 16-24 (n = 3209) from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study (ABCD) and the Multisite Assessment of Psychosis-risk Study (MAP), respectively. Item-level endorsement and distressing item frequencies were examined by age throughout both cohorts.

Results: Unusual perceptual experiences were generally endorsed more heavily in childhood, while other PLEs were endorsed in adolescents and adults up to 4.8 times more frequently than in children. Additionally, certain experiences were endorsed by as many as 73 percent of the older sample.

Conclusions: Considerations for the measurement of PLEs in childhood and adolescence are underscored. Findings from these two samples provide a window into the course of these PLEs and may serve as a scaffold for future research investigating normative versus risk-related experiences during development.