Considerable support exists for higher-order dimensional conceptualizations of psychopathology in adults. A growing body of work has focused on understanding the structure of general and specific psychopathology in children and adolescents. No prior meta-analysis has examined whether the strength of the general psychopathology factor (p factor)—measured by explained common variance (ECV)—changes from childhood to adolescence. The primary objective of this multilevel meta-analysis was to determine whether general psychopathology strength changes across development (i.e. across ages) in childhood and adolescence. Several databases were searched in November 2021; 65 studies, with 110 effect sizes (ECV), nested within shared data sources, were identified. Included empirical studies used a factor analytic modeling approach that estimated latent factors for child/adolescent internalizing, externalizing, and optionally thought-disordered psychopathology, and a general factor. Studies spanned ages 2–17 years. Across ages, general psychopathology explained over half (~ 56%) of the reliable variance in symptoms of psychopathology. Age-moderation analyses revealed that general factor strength remained stable across ages, suggesting that general psychopathology strength does not significantly change across childhood to adolescence. Even if the structure of psychopathology changes with development, the prominence of general psychopathology across development has important implications for future research and intervention.

对成人精神病理学的高阶维度概念化存在相当大的支持。越来越多的工作集中于了解儿童和青少年的一般和特定精神病理学结构。之前没有荟萃分析检验过一般精神病理学因素（p因素）的强度（通过解释共同方差 (ECV) 衡量）是否从童年起发生了变化到青春期。这项多层次荟萃分析的主要目的是确定一般精神病理学强度是否随着儿童期和青春期的发展（即跨年龄）而变化。 2021年11月检索多个数据库；确定了 65 项研究，其中包含 110 个效应量 (ECV)，嵌套在共享数据源中。纳入的实证研究使用因素分析建模方法来估计儿童/青少年内化、外化和可选的思维障碍精神病理学的潜在因素以及一般因素。研究涵盖 2 至 17 岁的年龄。在各个年龄段，一般精神病理学解释了一半以上（~ 56%）的精神病理学症状的可靠变异。年龄调节分析显示，一般因素强度在不同年龄阶段保持稳定，这表明一般精神病理学强度在儿童期到青春期期间没有显着变化。即使精神病理学的结构随着发展而变化，一般精神病理学在整个发展过程中的突出地位对未来的研究和干预具有重要意义。