Over the past two decades, it has become clear that psychopathology exists on continuous spectra organized hierarchically from broad, general symptom dimensions to more specific ones. This structure is best represented by the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) framework that incorporates individual signs, symptoms, and behaviors at its most specific level while encompassing higher-order dimensions at its broadest level. This commentary gives an overview of studies that evaluated higher-order dimensions of psychopathology and their alignment with the HiTOP framework. Studies consistently support the alignment of youth psychopathology with the HiTOP framework, particularly its general dimension of psychopathology and the broad internalizing and externalizing spectrum. The model also identifies distinct, lower-level dimensions such as fear, affectivity, antagonism, and attention problems. This hierarchical structure is evident across the entire age span but with specific makeup of dimensions appearing to differ between children and adolescents. Rapidly gaining momentum, current evidence indicates HiTOP’s effectiveness in conceptualizing youth mental health. Future studies should focus on exploring the HiTOP structure across different ages and populations, testing its real-world generalizability, selecting the most appropriate assessment tools, and understanding how the framework applies to youth from diverse societies and cultures.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between temperament, ruminative thought style and social anxiety using latent variable modeling. Before examining the integrated model that specifies the relations between the constructs, relevant measurement issues were examined. The study was conducted on a heterogeneous sample from the general population that included 1,029 participants (62.1% female) aged 19 to 79. The findings show that the Behavioural Inhibition System is the most important vulnerability factor for the development of social anxiety, and it has both a direct effect and an indirect one through the ruminative thought style. Also, Freeze has an additional contribution to the increased experience of social anxiety. The Behavioural Approach System has complex effects on social anxiety ? with a direct protective effect, and indirectly ? with a facilitation of the ruminative thought style. Thus, BAS can also act as a risk factor. The findings support the revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory and provide a basis for the extension of the Kimbrel?s Mediation Model of Social Anxiety.

The Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ) is a generic conspiracy mentality questionnaire whose content is suitable for different linguistic and cultural contexts. However, it needs to demonstrate strong measurement properties across these contexts to be effective. This study aimed to explore the psychometric properties of the CMQ across four different languages: Serbian, Bulgarian, Greek, and English. Despite its widespread use, the CMQ lacks sufficient research on its psychometric properties, especially in terms of measurement invariance across different linguistic versions (apart from the parent study). Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, no study has investigated the equivalence of the CMQ across genders, even though it is used for gender comparisons. To address this gap, we analyzed data from 2,897 participants (76.1% female) aged 18-89. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the modified one-factor structure, with a correlated residual that was replicated/previously reported, across languages. Measurement invariance analysis confirmed metric invariance across languages and scalar invariance across genders. Scalar invariance was established across education for Serbian, Bulgarian, and, with some caution, Greek, while it was not a property of the English sample. The nomological network of the CMQ aligns with previous findings regarding the correlates of conspiracy mentality.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is often comorbid with depression in both the general population and among veterans who have experienced combat trauma. However, there is a lack of studies inquiring into the comorbidity of prolonged PTSD and depression. The network paradigm offers a novel approach to studying this comorbidity via bridge symptom analysis. This study explores the bridge symptoms between depression and prolonged/chronic PTSD in patients diagnosed with both conditions, 10 years after trauma exposure, using network analysis. The sample consisted of 60 male, treatment-seeking veterans (aged 31 to 59) with diagnoses of both depression and PTSD. Bridge nodes detected in the present bridge symptom analysis include reduced sleep, inner tension, poor concentration/concentration difficulties, pessimistic and suicidal thoughts, distressing dreams, restricted range of affects, and agitation. The detected bridge nodes could partially be attributed to the characteristics of the sample, which consisted of patients diagnosed with PTSD comorbid with depression.