ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry
This article is part of the Research TopicLongitudinal Data Analysis in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, volume IIView all 10 articles
The Unique Contribution of Schizotypal Personality Subscales to Psychotic-Like Experiences and Social-Personality Factors in Hong Kong Community Youths
Provisionally accepted
Melody Miriam So1*
Stephanie Ming Yin Wong2
Yi Nam Suen3
Sherry Kit Wa Chan1,4
Edwin Ho Ming Lee1
Eric Yu Hai Chen5
Christy Lai Ming Hui1*- 1Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 2Department of Social Work and Social Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 3School of Nursing, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 4State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 5Centre for Youth Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
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Introduction:Schizotypal personality is a multifaceted construct that can be presented as the subscription to unusual thinking and behavior, few close relationships, and paranoia. The brief form of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire indexed these tendencies into Interpersonal, Cognitive-Perceptual, and Disorganization subscales. The current study aims to validate the three-factor structure of self-report subclinical schizotypy traits among an epidemiological youth sample in Hong Kong and their relationship with psychotic-like experiences, personality traits, and social factors. Methods: 3186 participants (58.3% female) between the ages of 15 and 25 (mean=19.8, SD=2.8) completed a self-administered questionnaire package comprised of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief form, the Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, and the Big Five Inventory. Factor analysis was conducted on schizotypal items, and the association between outcomes was tested using hierarchical linear regression. Results: Confirmatory Factor Analysis suggested that the three-factor model was a moderate-to-good fit. The Interpersonal subscale was associated with all outcomes and had higher explanatory power on social outcomes. Cognitive-Perceptual and Disorganization subscales had higher explanatory power on psychotic-like experiences. Discussion: The study highlights the replicability of subclinical schizotypy traits in Hong Kong youths. Each of the three factors had overlapping and unique associations with psychopathological and social-personality outcomes that can predispose individuals to mental ill health.
Keywords: Personality, Psychotic-like experience (PLE), schizotypy, social anxiety, youth & adolescence
Received: 10 Mar 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 So, Wong, Suen, Chan, Lee, Chen and Hui. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Melody Miriam So
Christy Lai Ming Hui
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