Laura Havers’s research while affiliated with University of London and other places

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Publications (13)


Figure 1. Five-factor model of negative symptoms at ages 16, 17, and 22. (A) Age 16; (B) Age 17; (C) Age 22. Standardized estimates from best fitting confirmatory factor analysis models. Rectangles represent measured variables. Circles represent latent variables. Doubleheaded arrows represent correlations. Single-headed arrows represent factor loadings.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Negative Symptoms: Model Fit Results
Subdomain Mean Scores Regressed on MDD GPS and Schizophrenia GPS
The Latent Structure of Negative Symptoms in the General Population in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood
  • Article
  • Full-text available

January 2022

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97 Reads

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7 Citations

Schizophrenia Bulletin Open

Laura Havers

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Alastair Cardno

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Daniel Freeman

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Negative symptoms predict adverse outcomes within psychotic disorders, in individuals at high-risk for psychosis, and in young people in the community. There is considerable interest in the dimensional structure of negative symptoms in clinical samples, and accumulating evidence suggests a 5-factor structure. Little is known about the underlying structure of negative symptoms in young people despite the importance of this developmental stage for mental health. We used confirmatory factor analysis to test the structure of parent-reported negative symptoms at mean ages 16.32 (SD 0.68, N = 4974), 17.06 (SD 0.88, N = 1469) and 22.30 (SD 0.93, N = 5179) in a community sample. Given previously reported associations between total negative symptoms and genome-wide polygenic scores (GPS) for major depressive disorder (MDD) and schizophrenia in adolescence, we assessed associations between individual subdomains and these GPSs. A 5-factor model of flat affect, alogia, avolition, anhedonia, and asociality provided the best fit at each age and was invariant over time. The results of our linear regression analyses showed associations between MDD GPS with avolition, flat affect, anhedonia, and asociality, and between schizophrenia GPS with avolition and flat affect. We showed that a 5-factor structure of negative symptoms is present from ages 16 to 22 in the community. Avolition was most consistently associated with polygenic liability to MDD and schizophrenia, and alogia was least associated. These findings highlight the value of dissecting negative symptoms into psychometrically derived subdomains and may offer insights into early manifestation of genetic risk for MDD and schizophrenia.

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Genetic and environmental influences on the stability of psychotic experiences and negative symptoms in adolescence

April 2019

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38 Reads

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7 Citations

Background Psychotic experiences (PEs) such as paranoia and hallucinations, and negative symptoms (NS) such as anhedonia and flat affect are common in adolescence. Psychotic experiences and negative symptoms (PENS) increase risk for later psychiatric outcomes, particularly when they persist. The extent to which genetic and environmental influences contribute to the stability of PENS in mid‐to‐late adolescence is unknown. Methods Using the Specific Psychotic Experiences Questionnaire (SPEQ) twice across ~9 months in adolescence, N = 1,448 twin pairs [M = 16.32 (0.68)] reported experiences of paranoia, hallucinations, cognitive disorganization, grandiosity and anhedonia, and their parents reported on a range of NS. Individuals were split into low‐scoring, decreasing, increasing and persistent groups for each subscale. Frequencies and mean differences in distress, depression traits and emotional problems were investigated across groups. Longitudinal structural equation modelling was used to estimate the aetiological components underlying the stability of PENS. Results Phenotypic stability was moderate for all PENS (r = .59–.69). Persistent PENS across 9 months were associated with greater levels of distress (V = 0.15–0.46, for PEs only), depression traits (d = 0.47–1.67, except grandiosity) and emotional problems (d = 0.47–1.47, except grandiosity and anhedonia) at baseline compared to groups with transitory or low levels of PENS. At both ages PENS were heritable and influenced by shared and nonshared environment. Genetic influences contributed 38%–62% and shared environment contributed 13%–33% to the stability of PENS. Nonshared environment contributed 34%–41% (12% for parent‐rated NS). There was strong overlap of genetic and shared environmental influences across time, and lower overlap for nonshared environment. Imperfect stability of PENS was at least partly due to nonshared environmental influences. Conclusions When adolescent PENS persist over time, they are often characterized by more distress, and higher levels of other psychopathology. Both genetic and environmental effects influence stability of PENS.



Citations (5)


... Intersectionality focuses on the ways in which systems of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, class, and other forms of discrimination "intersect" to create unique dynamics and effects (Center for Intersectional Justice, 2022;Crenshaw, 2013). In this line, a recent study showed that the extent to which the effects of youth adversity on the development of depression/anxiety symptoms are dependent on intersections of individual characteristics (Havers et al., 2024). ...

Reference:

Self-esteem at the intersection of sex, SES, and immigrant origin
Youth adversity and trajectories of depression/anxiety symptoms in adolescence in the context of intersectionality in the United Kingdom

Psychological Medicine

Laura Havers

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... Recognizing that the theoretical and judicial origins of intersectionality are rooted in gender and race (Crenshaw, 1991), the current study makes use of available measures in an existing cohort study to explore intersectionality conceptualized more expansively (Cole, 2009) in terms of gender (binary), SES, and traits of hyperactivity/inattention (as an index of neurodivergence) in a representative sample of adolescents living in a rural/coastal region of the United Kingdom (Hosang et al., 2023). ...

Protocol for secondary data analysis of 4 UK cohorts examining youth adversity and mental health in the context of intersectionality

... Given the small sample size, we did not include all background predictors together in the logistic regression model. Referencing on published papers (Havers et al., 2023;Starzer et al., 2023), we began with univariate examination of baseline variables, followed by a multivariable multinomial logistic regression incorporating all significant covariates. The statistical threshold was set at p < 0.05. ...

Psychotic experiences and negative symptoms from adolescence to emerging adulthood: developmental trajectories and associations with polygenic scores and childhood characteristics

Psychological Medicine

... While positive PEs have been extensively studied in this context (55), the extent to which the construct of negative symptoms applies to the general population is debated (56). Negative symptoms have been most prominently associated with chronic schizophrenia, but evidence from transdiagnostic studies suggests that negative symptoms are prevalent to varying degrees in people with nonschizophrenia spectrum disorders and high-risk groups as well as in the general population (57)(58)(59). It is possible that the findings in the present study reflect associations between PUFAs and a nonspecific latent factor of psychopathology more generally [akin to the p factor (60)]. ...

The Latent Structure of Negative Symptoms in the General Population in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Schizophrenia Bulletin Open

... In terms of genetic factors, several studies have investigated their influence on PENS at single time-points or assessments , and findings from a small number of family studies further suggest that genetic factors are associated with the development of PENS (Ericson, Tuvblad, Raine, Young-Wolff, & Baker, 2011;Havers, Taylor, & Ronald, 2019;Janssens et al., 2016;Wigman et al., 2011a). The prior study with the largest sample size (N = 1448 twin pairs) found that 38-62% of the covariance in separate PENS dimensions measured across two time-points in adolescence was accounted for by genetic influences (Havers et al., 2019). ...

Genetic and environmental influences on the stability of psychotic experiences and negative symptoms in adolescence