Abstract
Irritability is a transdiagnostic feature and a common mental health problem in adolescence. Prior studies indicate that irritability is composed of two correlated but separable dimensions, tonic irritability (i.e., irritable mood) and phasic irritability (i.e., temper outbursts), which are respectively associated with internalizing and externalizing outcomes. However, little is known about the stability and interrelations of tonic and phasic irritability. The current study examined the longitudinal interplay between tonic and phasic irritability during adolescence. A community sample of 544 girls (age 13.5–15.5 years) was assessed at 5 waves (over 3 years, in 9-month intervals). A random-intercept cross-lagged panel model was used to examine the within-person stability and longitudinal interrelations of tonic and phasic irritability. Pseudo-indicator models were used to help analyze all available data. Results suggest that tonic and phasic irritability had distinct patterns of development and co-development. Between individuals, tonic and phasic irritability showed moderate rank-order stability and high concurrent correlations. Within individuals, phasic irritability was found to positively predict both tonic and phasic irritability at the subsequent wave, whereas tonic irritability did not predict later phasic irritability and showed weaker within-person stability. These results suggest that increased or decreased phasic irritability in adolescent girls may signify continued increase or decrease in both tonic and phasic irritability. The study was among the first to demonstrate the discriminant validity of tonic and phasic irritability from a developmental perspective.
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Notes
In structural equation modeling, the baseline models are typically null models, where all variables of interest are included but they are not allowed to correlate. This baseline model serves as the comparison for the model fit by the researcher, and some fit indices are calculated based on the difference between the researcher’s model and the null model using the same data and variables. In SEMs that utilize the PIM, however, the standard baseline null model does not properly account for the PIMs and estimates a biased CFI and TLI, making it inadequate for characterizing model fit. Thus, following Rose et al. (2019), we parameterized an appropriate baseline model, which incorporated the features of PIMs for all 10 tonic and phasic irritability scale score variables to serve as a more appropriate baseline model. Syntax for our baseline model are provided in Appendix A.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grants R01MH093479 and R56MH117116 awarded to coauthors R.K. and D.N.K. The authors would like to thank all the dedicated research staff for their assistance on this project. A special thank you to all the participating adolescents and their families, without whom this research would not be possible.
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Conceptualization: [Yinghao Zhang], [Daniel N. Klein], [Nicholas R. Eaton], [Jamilah I. Silver]; Methodology: all authors; Formal analysis and investigation: [Yinghao Zhang]; Writing - original draft preparation: [Yinghao Zhang], [Jamilah I. Silver]; Writing - review and editing: all authors; Funding acquisition: [Roman Kotov], [Daniel N. Klein]; Resources: [Greg Perlman], [Roman Kotov], [Daniel N. Klein]; Supervision: [Nicholas R. Eaton]. All authors approved the final manuscript.
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Zhang, Y., Silver, J.I., Perlman, G. et al. Longitudinal Stability and Interrelations of Tonic and Phasic Irritability in Adolescent Girls. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 51, 1343–1355 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-023-01072-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-023-01072-x