Decomposing the Transdiagnostic Nature of Future-oriented Mental
Process: Associations of Future Self-Connectedness and Future
Self-Valence with Mental Illnesses
Abstract
Future-oriented concepts have been shown to link to various mental
illnesses. Given the tendency for mental illnesses to co-occur, and
enhancing future-oriented mental process and functions are adopted as
intervention strategies, there is a necessity to better understand the
specific links between the dimensions of future-oriented mental process
and general versus specific mental illnesses. This study was among the
first to examine the transdiagnostic and disorder-specific associations
between future self-connectedness/self-valence and mental illnesses.
Bifactor analysis was utilised in z-proso wave 8 data (N=1180, age=20),
the two core dimensions of future mental process. Bifactor analysis was
based on the mental illness structure identified via a calibration and
validation approach, which was suggested as the optimal operation.
Symmetry bifactor analysis yielded insufficient support for a p-factor,
therefore, further analyses were explored and an S-1 bifactor analysis
achieved the best model fit. In a structural equation model, S-1
bifactor model yielded evidence that future self-valence and
self-connectedness both negatively correlated with internalising, ADHD,
psychosis-like symptoms, and substance use. These findings supported
transdiagnostic process and potential intervention strategies of these
future-oriented dimensions. However, they were associated via separate
paths with ADHD, internalising symptoms, psychosis and substance use,
rather than via a shared psychopathological process.